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“You ready?” Erick asked.

Solomon said, “Yes.”

Lorizal Ex simply nodded.

Actually getting everything together for the summoning of Avandrasolaro had taken a lot longer than a day, for while the Church of Peace was against war and force, it was very much filled with people who liked to talk, and talk, and talk. Which was great for peace! In the absence of force, communication and convincing was king. The only problem with that was that some people used their words like weapons, and they did not know when to stop.

Erick had finally had to step in and simply declare what was going to happen.

And now they were here, two days later than expected. Erick didn’t mind the delay, for his ‘Universal Mapping’ the other day was being discussed in every single hall of power that knew about it. Which had been everyone, as of an hour ago. It hadn’t started that way. Rozeta had told Kromolok and it was rather quiet down in the Geodes for a day, but then news got around from Ar’Cosmos and Fairy because Fairy Moon got a bug up her ass about throwing the biggest, bestest party she could. That party was still going on right now, and it probably would be going on for the foreseeable future. All the world was warned to stay away from that party, for it was like a tidal surge leading into a whirlpool; easily pulling and holding onto everyone who attended it, even if you were prepared for it.

Erick would probably have to intervene in that party later, but not right now. For now, in every kingdom, and in every Geode, and in more than a few adventurer beer halls, they were talking about the size of the universe. ‘Erick’s Map’.

And now Erick was summoning angels from the Dark. Or at least he would in a moment.

One last check.

They stood before the Black Gate, where Dark Dreams swam beyond in a riot of black color. Everything looked normal there.

Erick’s clothes were white and black with silver accents. Immaculate, and made by real professionals. Special made for the occasion, too. Guile had asked what Erick would be wearing, and when Erick showed him, the little fox declared that Erick was not doing nearly enough. ‘You’re summoning a demigod who ruled over trillions of people for eons. Dress better.’ And so Erick had.

Solomon had on a similar cut as Erick’s clothes, but slightly lesser, to denote his station as lesser in this arena, but not too much lesser. Solomon was to be Avandrasolaro’s main human contact, or at least one of the larger archmage/nascent-Wizard forces whom Avandrasolaro would be interfacing with in order to end the Forever War. Hopefully the angel would be okay with that.

No one had any idea what would actually happen when they brought Avandrasolaro back.

Everyone from Koyabez to Rozeta to Kirginatharp to Erick’s own people in House Benevolence all had various ideas. Most of them were optimistic. They all said that Avandrasolaro would have an adjustment period toward life on Veird, but that he should be able to adjust well.

Erick stood in front of the Black Gate. Solomon stood on his right.

Lorizal, an all-red incani and with her horns shaved, stood on Erick’s left, wearing high priestess robes that were rather ancient by modern standards. They looked almost spun from tissue paper, almost translucent and yet well made. They showed off the simple wrap around her chest and a simple loincloth underneath. Which was the idea. The whole dress was like origami, with writing in thin silver letters all across the whole piece. Her headdress was a round cap also made of see-through cloth, with small strips of prayers rising up from the rim, each of them calling for peace in trying times, and for words over warriors.

It would have been a scandalous outfit in most arenas of this modern age, but Koyabez only ever wore a small loincloth anyway to show off that he held no weapons. It sort of made sense for Lorizal to wear something similar. At least Lorizal’s outfit was warmer than it looked; Erick had asked her just that, when they had gathered for this and she was shaking a little. That shaking was nerves.

It wasn’t every day one met a demigod angel, who might actually help them end both the Quiet War and Forever War for all time.

Erick looked to Lorizal again; she hadn’t actually said she was ready, and she still looked nervous.

Lorizal breathed deep, then she glanced toward Erick. “I am ready to welcome him to Veird. Let us proceed, Good Wizard Flatt.”

At that, Erick nodded. He spared one more glance toward the three Paladins of Peace which had journeyed with Lorizal to this place of Welcoming Dark. They were all dressed in simple robes, in the more modern style, each of them holding Silver-Star-shaped shields on their backs; round shields with a few small points on the edges. At his glance, they all stood even more at attention.

The girls were far down the way, along with a bunch of other observers who simply had to be here. The girls were close enough to intervene with the Black Gate and what was beyond, if necessary, but everyone hoped the ancient angel would come through without any prodding or war. Avandrasolaro was most certainly a Wizard, but, like Guile, they wouldn’t have that capability there in the Dark.

Probably.

Good.

The stage was set.

Erick stopped delaying.

He spoke, “We seek Avandrasolaro, at the height of his kingly power. Peace demands a new true hero; there’s a Forever War to scour.”

Darkness and black dreams flowed away from a scene beyond the Black Gate, revealing a grand hall, in a cross pattern, filled with light and people.

The ceiling beyond was a kilometer up, vanishing in light and vaulted cathedral architecture, while long white walls, like columns, descended to the white stone floor in the far distance, in every distance. A silver carpet lay down the center of the grand king’s hall, leading toward a staircase that led up a dais set in the back of the hall. People lined the hall, and the carpet, waiting in line to approach the end of the hall, to speak to the man up there who was not a simple man at all. There was a silver throne upon that dais, but it was hard to tell exactly what Erick was looking at, for Avandrasolaro was maybe half a kilometer away, a demigod, and making minuscule all other observations.

The angel was brown-skinned, shirtless, muscular, and wearing the same sort of loincloth that Koyabez sported, but he looked like an actual warrior, and he had clearly-visible weapons ‘upon’ him, or at least near him. Like all angels, Avandrasolaro was soul-attached to weapons that hovered near him. And he had a lot. Erick wasn’t sure what was going on with the man’s throne, but it looked like a simple silver stool; something to sit upon that didn’t block his backside, where all his tools of war hovered all around him.

Weapons in every shape and style were like resting wings, halfway laying down on the dais and halfway hovering in the air all around Avandrasolaro. Spears and swords, maces and daggers, hiltless katana-like tools of war, scythes of various size and shape, all of them silver and sharp as they could be. Even the blunt weapons had edges to them.

A moment passed, and Erick saw the greatest danger was not happening; nothing would be attacking toward the gate, for no one on that side could see the gate, even though there had to be powerful people among that crowd. Because of that—

Erick instantly decided, “We will postpone initial action and wait for some of the people to clear out.”

The Black Gate had only been open for a half minute so far, and the timer above the portal read all 9s. They could wait and not lose anything.

Solomon said, “I think they’re all kings and queens of their own in that line.”

Erick felt the same way. He was already listening to the happenings on the other side.

Far ahead, at the front of the line, just beyond the stairs to the dais, a dwarvish woman with a very large updo continued, her voice filling the hall, “—And so our attempts at persuading the orcs to stick to their pact-agreed lands has failed, and we are facing a horde march this coming Brightening, or sooner. All of this could have been avoided if your Paladins would have done their jobs, and not fallen in love with the orcs they were supposed to defend us from, thus allowing their trespasses of war preparations to go unnoticed for this long. Therefore, we ask for dispensation to force the issue in the favor of your humble subjects; for the orcs to be forcibly relocated, or culled back to manageable size, or for whatever other solution you might have, our King Avandrasolaro.”

She bowed, taking a knee to await her king’s judgment.

Avandrasolaro seemed to consider her words, then he said, “I do not lightly grant paladinship to believers, so while the nature of your statement is likely correct, I feel the facts have been misconstrued.”

“On my very soul, the facts are as factual as I am capable of knowing.”

“Very well.” Avandrasolaro said, “I judge for relocation. If, in the pursuit of this solution, I find out something untoward, then parts of your population will be relocated instead. Now. Are you sure you are not misrepresenting key facts?”

The woman strongly said, “I wish it would not have come to this, but it has. On my soul, I am telling the truth of my lands, as I know them to be true.”

Avandrasolaro said, “Dismissed.”

The dwarven woman stood and walked toward the left, looking relieved, but not weak. One couldn’t look weak in front of other sovereigns, after all. A lesser angel with bindings for clothes and swords floating at her back guided the dwarven woman toward a door, removing her from the proceedings.

And then a tall man who seemed elven stepped to the speaker’s spot before Avandrasolaro’s dais.

Avandrasolaro stared the man down, and said, “State the full breadth of your grievance, Clan Rivermaw, and keep it short.”

The man from Rivermaw began, “In the Winter of two and a half years ago, the demons attacked the crackside lands of Rivermaw. We fought them back, as was our right to defend ourselves, but due to the intervention of Bisection Paladins briefly fighting on the sides of the demons and us killing three of those Paladins, we were censured for a 25% increase in tithe, from 3% to 28%, and you personally took the head of my general and gifted it to the demons. I am here to state, once again, that we did not seek punitive war against the demons in retaliation for their crimes against us, and thus you had no right to censure us as you did.” With well-restrained anger, the man said, “Last time I was here I was unable to provide adequate proof that their whole war was a false flag operation designed to discredit our ability and right to defend ourselves.

“But I have proof now.

“After 2 years and because of the demon’s overreach in their lust for power and land, through mercantile means that most would deem unethical in all ways and which cross the line into unlawful in multiple areas, I can lay out their entire false flag operation, and prove that in their attack, and in our defense of that attack, that what they actually desired was to undermine the entire Rivermaw area, to make us ripe for picking. Which they have done. In 2 more years, if Law and Good does not prevail here and now, we will have to sell our sovereignty back to Bisection control, and the demons will purchase it.”

Erick had thought that perhaps he could ignore what the man had been asking for, that he could make plans with everyone on this side. But he ended up listening to the Rivermaw’s man's entire spiel. It was a compelling case, for Erick had needed to work out situations just like it. Also, it seemed the Old Demons had passed down their culture of 'getting people into debt in order to control them' had deep roots. The incani had kept this culture going to this day, though without Contract Magic it wasn’t nearly as powerful as it could have been.

Erick was glad Contract Magic did not exist; it was one of Rozeta’s best decisions.

Anyway. Erick knew how he would resolve the situation. He wondered if Avandrasolaro would do the same. First would come the full telling of truths, though. This guy would need to actually back up his claims.

Avandrasolaro frowned a little at the elf, then he waved a hand and multiple [Gate]s opened up in a full arc across the speaker’s portion of the audience, each of them looking from this angle like soft, white-gold circles of mist. The entrance to the other sides of those [Gate]s were pointed toward Avandrasolaro, of course. “Attend to me, my lawyers, the prosecution from Rivermaw, and the defense from the demonic lands of Deadfield.”

People appeared, and also those who were not people at all, but demons. Three demons. They were giants among men, both colored and shaped like gore and offal, but wearing suits or dresses; monsters deciding to look like people for a while, for as long as it served their purposes. Tentacles and eyes and wings of flame, or skin, or bone. They appeared completely calm, which was in great contrast to the others who had come out of different portals.

The people from Rivermaw strode forward, each of them carrying suitcases and other tools of the lawyer profession. They looked like they had just woken up, which might have happened. A lot of the people in the line of sovereigns looked half-asleep, as though they had been in the line for a long time. Seeing Avandrasolaro open [Gate]s and call for a trial didn’t even wake them up much. If there were breaks for full trials then it was a surprise that any of them were as upright as they were. Maybe these trials didn’t actually take much time? Erick didn’t know.

A few people in line were actively waking, though, as there was a trial going on now, so maybe this didn’t happen too often.

Avandrasolaro’s wings made of weapons slightly raised from the ground, as the angel himself stared impassively at the arrangement before him. The portals all closed. And then he said, “My lawyers will provide you with one hour to deliberate this concern, to attempt to achieve reconciliation before I get involved. If you forgo this reconciliation, then I will be involved for as long as it takes me to make a decision. Lawyers.”

Erick had ignored the three angels with wings made of daggers who had stepped out of a different portal, but now he focused on them. All three were dressed in simple clothes; bindings for the two women, and loincloths for all three.

The male lawyer clapped his hands—

A bubble enveloped the speaker’s space, completely occluding the proceedings, but Erick and many other sovereigns watched intently. It was a time bubble, for sure, and the people inside were already turning into blurs. They didn’t move back and forth much at all, except for the lawyers, but everyone did all gesticulate and make small movements here and there. That was enough to make viewing them unintelligible, not to mention they were half a kilometer away—

Suddenly, the bubble popped, and everyone was back in their starting places.

The demons seemed less happy than before, though emotions were kinda hard to tell with them.

The people from Rivermaw seemed reserved, and vengeful.

The male lawyer said, “Reconciliation is not possible. The evidence produced by Rivermaw meets basic requirements for a true trial. It is in this court’s opinion that the Deadfield return the property in question to Rivermaw, and return to your borders. It is our opinion to remove the tithe against Rivermaw, and install Paladins of the Bisection to oversee a return to peaceful times. Certain demons must also be brought to justice, but that is outside of the recommendation of this lower court.” He asked the litigants. “Please state for the record that you wish to accept this declaration of reconciliation, or continue to true trial. Rivermaw?”

Rivermaw answered, “We wish for a full trial.”

“Deadfield?”

The demon made of tentacles and eyes, stuffed in a suit, said, “We wish to go to full trial and for these aggressive Rivermaw elves to be put down for the good of us—”

“Enough of that.” Avandrasolaro’s wings lifted up a bit more, almost threateningly. “We go to full trial.”

The male lawyer clapped his hands again—

The bubble of time was much larger this time, enveloping the whole speaker area and the throne—

The bubble collapsed.

All three demons were dead, reduced to smears upon the ground.

The Rivermaw elves were relieved, two of them crying tears of joy.

Avandrasolaro proclaimed, “The demons of Deadfield have massively overstepped the bounds of their individual allotments and the Bisection Pact itself, and worse, they have used deceit and my own Paladins to sow chaos and destruction among the people.” Avandrasolaro opened up ten thousand small portals all around his throne. “I now decree Deadfield to be in Grand Violation.”

And then his wings went outward, through the portals.

Screaming and death followed.

In less than a minute his wings came back layered with blood and guts. A simple flick cast that mess to the ground, though his wings remained slightly red. The mess was not a mess for long. The dead demons from before were already evaporating off of the ground, through some sort of cleaning magic, but when Avandrasolaro scattered so much more blood that cleaning magic really took off. Within moments, his wings of weapons were clean, and so was the floor. Even the demons’ clothes had vanished into the manasphere.

Avandrasolaro proclaimed, “Justice is done. Every demon of Deadfield who surpassed 75% guilt to my eyes is slain. Those below 75% have suffered wounds that they will survive. 15% of Deadfield is now dead.”

Rivermaw’s people looked relieved, but also terrified. Kinda hard to see from this angle.

Avandrasolaro said, “The tithes against Rivermaw are ended. You will have assistance to rebuild, but you have failed to be good neighbors, so you will provide the demons with assistance to rebuild. You will build bridges, not war. Attack the demons who remain and you will be removed from power next. You will be under probation for the next 5 years, as will the demons of Deadfield. Your case is over.”

The elves of Rivermaw bowed.

The lawyers guided the elves away, toward the left.

The next case started. It was about a tax issue, and it was deadly, involving bandits and corruption inside several corporations, but not as deadly as the demon-involved case. Halfway through, Erick turned his attentions back to his people.

“I believe we will have to wait a long time, and from what I am seeing in your eyes, Lorizal, and among your Paladins, you have some discussions to make amongst yourselves, if you really want Avandrasolaro to come back.”

Lorizal was visibly worried. The paladins near her shared those worries.

An angel who could open [Gate]s to the enemies and simply annihilate them like that? Kinda terrifying. Erick could do the same thing, but he never would. Avandrasolaro’s display of power gave him the heebie jeebies. No one should have that much power…

Erick considered something.

Erick said, “He is at the height of his power, in this place. We could look for a lesser version of him. Someone not quite so willing to enact violence like that. But you wanted a real solution to the Quiet War, and this seems like it could be that, and looking for a less-solid version of him might be impossible.”

None of them spoke. All of them were thinking.

Guile dropped from Solomon’s arm, turning into a fox as he said, “Avandrasolaro never changed. His enemies just learned how to kill him, and he stopped growing to prevent that. That is the story of his death, while in his life, he was strong and capable of ruling peacefully, as much as any nation of trillions can.”

Lorizal focused. She asked Guile, “Would he attack incani? Just because of who we are?”

“No,” Guile said, firmly. “I am sure if we watch enough that we will see some demonic group get their side upheld.” He lifted his head toward the lands beyond, while pointing with three of his ten tails. “That woman there is a demon.” He moved his tails three more times, pointing out people, saying, “Demon, demon, demon. They sent their best looking ones to try and curry favor, so you can’t really tell. But they’re demons inside of all of those fleshbags.”

Lorizal frowned a little, then asked, “Deadfield sent the monstrous ones in an attempt at intimidation? They knew their case would fall through?”

“A correct assessment,” Guile said, “And the ones who appear more presentable think they have a good case.”

Lorizal said to Erick, “I would ask for time to sit and study these proceedings.”

“And you shall have it,” Erick said, as he conjured some nice chairs. “Anyone else going to change clothes? Or move on and come back later?”

There was a rearrangement.

- - - -

The rearrangement did not take long.

Lorizal changed into a simple dress and took a chair to the side. Then she conjured binoculars and a hearing horn so she didn’t have to stress her eyes and ears for the next few hours, because this was going to take hours. Her paladins joined her, alongside many of the assorted dignitaries from all over the world. The girls stuck around, but Emily was the only one truly interested in what was going on with Avandrasolaro’s style of governance; Erick, Solomon, and Guile were right there with her. The other girls got out board games.

It wasn’t long till every single person in the delegation was openly debating on what it meant to actually bring Avandrasolaro back to this world. Side debates soon began concerning the nature of the various arguments presented.

Guile and Solomon and Erick all watched the full proceedings from the comforts of chairs set to the right of the portal, so as not to block the view forward. None of them spoke much. All of them were listening to everything happening around them.

The big question got tossed around.

“Where do we actually want Avandrasolaro? What would he want to do? What is our goal in bringing him back?”

There had been plans to hook him up with the Church of Peace, and Koyabez, but it increasingly appeared that the world of Veird might be biting off more than it could chew with this particular angel. Avandrasolaro was ‘only a demigod’, and that would probably go away when they brought him back, but every single person in this space, with the exception of Guile, had vastly underestimated what that meant, exactly.

- - - -

Around the thirtieth case, hours after starting, Solomon broke the silence between him, Erick, and Guile, and asked Guile, “What age is he here, do you think? How long since he established the Bisection?”

Guile paused in thought, then began, “The angel was around 35,000 years old when he was assassinated. He established the Bisection in his fourth millennium, and grew his ever expanding bureaucracy to the style he would use for the remainder of his life in about a thousand years post-establishing. What we are seeing here is that legendary bureaucracy in action. He decided the fates of entire worlds from this throne… So… I would say, based on the surety of his deal with Deadfield and that Oceangoers trial and the one with the alvani, number 13… Maybe 20,000? Post Bisection Pact? Somewhere around there.” He added, “Hard to say, though, since the Bisection never left a ‘golden era’; it was constantly expanding peacefully all the way until Avandrasolaro’s assassination. After that event, the whole thing completely collapsed within 500 years, turning into one of the worst Forever War fronts in the entire known Cosmology. The angel was too strong, and too many people were dependent on his strength.”

Erick understood that completely.

Solomon nodded in understanding, too, and then he asked, “Any idea how long these judgment days last?”

“Ohhhh…” Guile hummed a little. “Hard to say. The line is full and as people finish, more people show up all the time... No one in line is speaking… Probably out of reverence or law or politeness. Not sure. A lot of them are tired, though. Seems like they might have been waiting in line for days? We can’t know how long the line is without poking inside and looking behind the Black Gate, either. Unless we can move the gate?” The blonde fox looked at both of them. “Turn it around and see the line of people coming down the hall?”

Erick shook his head, almost answering—

But Solomon was already saying, “Bad idea. I’m rather sure the angel would detect that. Or something. This is our viewpoint, and so this is our viewpoint.”

Beth overheard all that and called out, “I can go inside and ask!”

“Nope!” Erick said, vetoing that option.

Beth chuckled, then went back to her chess game against Jane, who was frowning at her. Both of them knew it had been a bad idea to go into the Black Gate right now, but while Jane was willing to wait, Beth wanted action.

Erick turned back toward Solomon and Guile, and asked the question that no one wanted to answer right now, “So! Is it a bad idea to pull this guy from the Dark?”

Every single person capable of hearing Erick went a little tense. A few people who hadn’t heard him, or hadn’t thought to pay attention to him because they were involved in the drama happening across the way and in their own conversations, all looked at their friends and colleagues. And then they looked toward Erick, and tensed. They probably had mana sense and they checked the past to see what had happened; no one here was a slouch, and Erick wasn’t cleaning out the history of the manasphere at all.

Lorizal had been focused on both arenas. She was thirty meters away from Erick, sitting down with her binoculars and hearing horn, as she called out, “I and the Church of Peace are not giving up on him, Wizard Flatt.” Then she turned to him, and said, “But you are correct in questioning this decision.” She turned back toward the day of judgment, adding, “We were warned that Avandrasolaro was a strong demigod. That he was fair yet brutally swift in his judgments. But perhaps he is too swift, and too violent. We are reformulating our response to him, and our requests to bring him back to life. To that end, we will speak to him when the line gets shorter, however long that might take.”

Beth mumbled, “Three hours and only 30 people down in a line of over 140—”

Abigail added, “—and it keeps getting longer—”

Candice finished, “—which means days of this.”

Everyone else went back to talking in their small groups.

And Erick asked the people near him, “Wanna start dissecting his judgments?”

Emily instantly spoke up from Erick’s side, “Finally! Yes. What did you think of that blue elementassi’s claim of Avandrasolaro’s overseers committing regulatory capture of the blue guy’s kingdom’s merchant guilds?”

Everyone focused on them again, and probably for a variety of reasons. Listening to world-class Wizards talk about how and why they rule, and to compare themselves against other rulers, was a valued pastime. The outcomes of Erick’s decisions shaped the very world they lived on, too. Everyone here liked politics with the exception of Jane and her sisters, perhaps. Except for Emily.

Emily increasingly reminded Erick of the heir that Jane never wanted to be.

Erick had been hankering to dissect Avandrasolaro’s judgments ever since they started, and for much the same reasons as everyone was interested in his own thoughts. The angel demigod was ruler for trillions of people. This kind of experience didn’t come along all too often! Not since before the Sundering, and absolutely never in Erick’s entire life.

He had been silent about all that because this was Wizardry, and talking might disturb this place, but it all seemed stable. So, it was time to talk about the angel that they might be inviting into this world.

Solomon seemed to be on Erick’s same wavelength. He asked, “Sound and view shield?”

Erick considered. Did he want to do this privately? “I normally wouldn’t.”

Solomon nodded.

Emily was doing a bad job of hiding just how excited she was to be here, talking about all this stuff.

Erick tried not to be too excited, too, for this was one of the very few times he had ever talked politics with his daughters… With any of them. He began, “That blue elementassi brought grave accusations against Avandrasolaro’s tenth-tier underlings, which was far down the list of who the angel had directly appointed, but the angel still brought in someone like the fourth-boss above the elementassi’s kingdom rule in order to mediate whatever had happened there. I would have liked to have seen the actual hour-long talk with those forces, but they were behind that time bubble, though when they came out the outcome looked almost predetermined; a house cleaning. Two executions and four displacements and the rooting out of an entire criminal underbelly that had infested Avandrasolaro’s far, far underlings.” Erick said, “That is probably how Avandrasolaro has to act in order to maintain order across a trillion-person-sized population. No time for due process.

“That’s what’s getting me the most, here. All of these things happening look almost predetermined. Or at least his reactions are predetermined. Of course he has been at this for multiple thousands of years… Even so. I’m not sure I would be so quick to enact the same sorts of justice. But then again I have [Reincarnation], and he does not. Or at least I don’t think he does. So he doesn’t have the same options I have.”

Emily nodded a little bit; that wasn’t where her thoughts lay, but she was glad to be talking about all this.

Solomon said, “I am conflicted by the level of violence we saw with that elementassi case. On one hand, Avandrasolaro did what he needed to do. The problem in that kingdom is now over. And that’s attractive. We’ve done the same thing many times already, but yeah… He’s violent. Possibly exactly as violent as he needs to be? Hard to say. All we get to see is this small happening. 5 minutes of talk, and sometimes there’s a time bubble. And that’s it.” Solomon asked Emily, “How would you have done that case?”

“There’s a lot of moving parts here,” Emily said, “Assuming this really is justice and not a show, then I would have blacklisted those responsible for the corruption in my organization and told them to move to another part of the universe. It was just corruption. It wasn’t murder. So I feel the angel’s murder of those people was too much.”

Erick disagreed, saying, “They were enacting regulatory capture in an attempt to set up murder and otherwise, later and legally. In that, something drastic had to be the response, and especially because it was the angels moving on the elementassi for their dealings with neighboring demons. Avandrasolaro has a line in the sand, and it is distinctly sensitive against all angel/demon interactions.”

Emily argued, “Yes, but nothing actually happened yet. Avandrasolaro acted with way too much force.”

“I agree that there was too much force, but maybe Avandrasolaro is prognosticating? Fate Magic, too. Probably a whole bunch of magics that we simply do not have over here on Veird.”

Solomon asked Guile, “Do you know all of what magics Avandrasolaro is using?”

Guile decided something at that moment. He said, “I know what I taught him to use, but he has gone above those primitive lessons of long, long ago.”

All eyes turned to the little blonde fox.

Erick asked, “You know him? Like personally?”

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Solomon asked.

Guile scowled at both of them, saying, “Because I wasn’t sure if this whole thing happening here was a trick until about half an hour ago. All of this whole ‘Veird’ seems like a cage of some sort to me, and then you all go and talk about anti-memetic threats that are clearly happening in this New Cosmology, and I am wondering if Melemizargo’s initial idea that this entire world is a trap is not completely unfounded. And I didn’t want to drag an old servant out of the Dark until I could be sure this wasn’t a trap. I am still not sure, mind you. But I am erring on the side of trust, since My True Kingly Queen seems to be trapped here, too.”

Fairy Moon stepped to Solomon’s side, her gaze directed forward, to Avandrasolaro. “Stop dithering and digressing. Bring him back and get the Forever War into a great grave.” She looked at Solomon and Erick. “An amalgamation of those always adversaries would be a boon for this lesser land of limitations should any Odd Others show themselves.” She said to Erick. “The party is progressing perfectly. If the Other Others should show, I can delay them for a dithering, but not for all always.”

Erick instantly asked, “But is Avandrasolaro a good thing to revive? Would he even want to come back? Could he handle this lesser world?”

Fairy Moon waved a hand, “Right now he is a dreaming dead. His desires do not matter until he matters.”

Erick was not happy with that answer at all—

Fairy Moon huffed, then said, “When the Other Outsiders make themselves known on this nascent world, you’d do well, Wizard, to have more power in your pocket. And now I must make merry!”

Fairy Moon stepped away through a flash of Springtime; gone.

How the fuck could she [Gate] inside the Dark?

… She was a fairy, of course. That’s how.

Guile’s ears flicked as he listened to the world, and then he said to Erick, “The man you see there is the ruler Avandrasolaro. The man himself is very different in different venues, as most people are. He is not like this all the time.”

“Now that makes me a whole lot more comfortable with this.” Erick asked, “What is he like, as a person?” Erick added, “And I still need to know what his actual powers are.”

“Aside from being a Book archmage and accomplished in Time and Spatial Magics, Avandrasolaro is most interested in making people work well together, and also enjoying the fruits of life.” Guile pointed with his tails at some people in line. “That male alvani there in red and that female alvani in the black are his descendants, but I cannot tell the familial distance, only the truth of it. You can tell by the wing-motifs on their soul weapons. Avandrasolaro had a lot of children and a lot of lovers. I believe his court is composed of mostly wives and husbands; very few political people… Though his wives and husbands are all political figures anyway, so the exact nature of all that is up for debate.”

Erick had more and different concerns, now.

Solomon said, “We’ll be ripping him away from people he loved, and he’ll never get them back.”

“Yes, and not just his court of partners, but also these people here; these kings and queens. Do we want to bring them back, too? They have no kingdoms.” Erick asked, “Is it wrong to leave them dead? We won’t be able to get this Judgment Day back once we use it, so those people will be lost to eternity.”

Erick let his words hang.

… He kinda wondered when he had started calling this a ‘Judgment Day’ in his mind, but that seemed right, so he left it alone.

Emily asked, “He’d do better with family and friends, right? So yes; we rescue them all.”

Everyone let those words hang.

And Erick thought. Four silent seconds later, he said, “I think I know how to handle this, but I need to know what Avandrasolaro’s initial reasons were for becoming the man he became. Guile?”

The blonde fox sat tall on his stool, his tails flicking out and then going lazy, as he began, “Avandrasolaro was not born the prince of a kingdom that spanned 500 worlds. He made himself into that sort of person. At first, he was born a simple angel, on the front of the Forever War, on a plane made of Glass and Lightning and all the Elements in between. He was fodder to hold back the tide for as long as he could, as the plane he was born to was destined to be overrun by demons within a century. But he survived. Time and time again, he survived by killing those who needed killing, and making allies along the way.

“At four thousand years old, he found me, upon a world of Metal and Water and Exalted, passing among the forgemasters of some mid-sized city, trying to find someone worthy of raising to power. Avandrasolaro turned out to be that person. He had ruined his weapons and he needed more and he showed promise, and so I moved into his forge and whispered power into his dreams, guiding his insights into Metal and Air.

“When he crafted a true artifact, I revealed myself, and we entered into a Contract.

“By the time I met him, Avandrasolaro wanted nothing to do with the Forever War, but the Forever War was not done with him. You don’t get to be a 4,000 year old angel without coming into your own sort of true power, with a lot of enemies on the other side wanting you dead.

“To make an incredibly long story short, I stayed with Avandrasolaro for a while, raising him up to true power, at the cost of him supplying me with all the demons I wanted to eat. It was an enemy on the other side who turned out to be not so bad which caused Avandrasolaro to try for peace. I wanted to eat that enemy, though. And so our relationship soured. I ate his arm, and then left him to his own devices.

“Avandrasolaro went on to found the Bisection several hundred years later.” Guile said, “And that’s as much as I should tell you of his past. He is a good man, to a fault. He is also a violent man whenever he needs to be.”

After a moment, Erick said, “Okay. Then I’m confident that we’re making the right decision in bringing him back.”

Erick laid out the idea.

After some discussion, Solomon was on board, and Guile gave all the suggestions he could. Lorizal approved, though she still wanted to observe Avandrasolaro with her people for a while longer.

Erick gazed at the crowd, counting people and estimating timeframes. “How about another 4 hours?”

Lorizal looked. She counted and estimated. “Ah? Three of Avandrasolaro’s descendants at once, at the front of the line?”

“As good a time as any.”

Guile added, “The more I think of it, the more I think these Judgment Days could last months; so yes, it is as good a time as any.”

“Which is why we’re not waiting overlong in the rescue,” Erick said.

- - - -

Avandrasolaro spread his wings and his gaze for the 578th time today, spearing through the plaintiffs in this case, killing 3 people whom he had thought were a good fit for the lands he assigned to them, but who were clearly not. His angelic forces had been overzealous in their persecution of the demonic lands, and yet the demons were allowed to defend themselves from unjust persecution, even if that defense had been over-orchestrated and punitive.

That war had cost three thousand lives and ten good generals, all of whom had been following unjust orders.

Avandrasolaro stared down at the defendants, a trio of fifth circle demons, each of them dressed in their finest bodies. They had come prepared to win, to defend themselves from unjust persecution, for if they had come prepared to lose then they would have come in their true forms, as Vile creatures of Greed and Power. They would have left these well-crafted bodies for their descendants, or in hiding holes in case they managed to get away from the Judgment Day.

No one got away from Judgment Day, though. People certainly tried, but they did not succeed.

People tried a lot on these particular days.

For the last ten hours, someone had been trying something, but Avandrasolaro could not put a weapon on what was going on in his Hall, not exactly. No one was speaking in the Grand Hall, which was proper, but… For some reason, Avandrasolaro heard voices that were not his own, or those of the judgery.

Someone —several someones— were criticizing him.

The plaintiffs always criticized him, but they at least had the decency to do it in the beer halls and courtyards of their victories or defeats, and not in line. So who the fuck was—

Something moved in a way it should not.

Avandrasolaro saw a flicker of something white in the air; there and then gone.

Someone was pulling some shit.

Avandrasolaro ignored it, like he usually ignored the smaller things. The disturbance was almost at the edge of the Grand Hall, anyway, and the next case was coming up. Soon, Avandrasolaro was listening to a rather standard corporation-overreach case involving the Queendom of Dition and the Kingdom of Lost Flowers. Avandrasolaro assigned a dissolution of the corporation and a payback of 50% of the damage done to Dition by Lost Flower’s court of nobility.

An hour and 5 more cases later, Avandrasolaro saw the white glow again, sparking in the air beside the flow of litigants. Three people in the line saw the sparks, too.

Avandrasolaro held up his hand and the litigants in front of him stopped talking. He raised his voice, weariness heavy in his words, angry that he had to say anything at all, “Whoever is doing that, remove yourself from my presence and from the seriousness of this Judgment Day. If one of you should come forward and I find out you were casting strange magics in my Hall, then you will not like the outcome of your case.”

A minor lie, for Avandrasolaro was always as just as he could be and never punitive, but it was a lie told within the scope of reasonableness and it was fine. Rarely did anyone like the outcomes of Judgment Day. This right here was a final recompense against unsure odds; people only came here if they were desperate and all the other layers of the Bisection’s Bureaucracy and problem solving centers had been unable to help.

No one spoke up.

Well that was fine, too.

Avandrasolaro told the litigants in front of him, “Continue.”

The litigants continued.

Avandrasolaro judged mostly in favor of the plaintiffs, but not completely. He executed 3 angels and 2 demons and 5 co-conspirators among the mortal races, 9 of them on the defendants’ side, and then he increased the tithes on the plaintiffs from 2% to 4% and set them with the task of rebuilding the destroyed forests that had been the location of the plantations they were fighting over. Prognostication bore out the success of that plan, but prognostication was never 100%, and the litigants left the speaker’s area looking overly-dejected. Hmm. Avandrasolaro sent a signal through a small Gate at his back, to have the others in the after-Judgment area adjust his proclamation slightly. He had missed something in the deaths he had caused. Someone might need to be revived.

The Church of Koyabez and his Holy Necromancers would do that, no problem. This happenstance was just another event that actually needed to be categorized and reported, though, so that a proper request for resurrection can happen.

Judgment Day progressed.

Before he knew it, three of Avandrasolaro’s kids were next in line. He hated Judging them, but he had to. At the same time, they felt they had to come to these Judgment Days, to ‘show off’ that they were on the right Path in life. It was like a rite of passage for them. Avandrasolaro hated it; he’d much rather they’d just visit him on a normal day and introduce themselves.

Had he ever met these three before?

… No.

Avandrasolaro hated how his children were political tools, how he didn’t know any of them that well at all, and how all his marriages had been unions of politics. When was the last time he actually loved someone? Sure, his harem was fun, and he did love them all in a deep way, but they only got together every other year. Everyone thought that he was some great lover, but all those women and men were too enamored with him to actually love him for real. How could he blame them for that, though? When all of them came from the Bisection, where Avandrasolaro had ruled for the last 20,000 years—

“Who is doing that,” Avandrasolaro said, as the air sparked again near the entrance of the Grand Hall. The litigants in front of him went silent in a little bit of terror; they didn’t know what was happening. Avandrasolaro gestured with several weapons toward the sparking area, to the right of the Hall. “That. That sparking.” He frowned, and said, “The Judgment Day is having an out-of-order event. Current litigants to the side. Whoever is disrupting these proceedings will come forth now and present themselves. All others to the side.”

Disruptions were not unheard of, but they were a drag. All the kings and queens and regents or otherwise walked to the side, away from the disturbance. Some were quicker than others, and some lingered to look at the sparks. Those lingering people rapidly moved when they were the only ones remaining behind; they didn’t want to get blamed.

“… And no one claims credit, eh?” Avandrasolaro raised a hand, and Pulled upon the sparking air—

… And nothing happened.

What should have happened was the sparks should have gotten closer, so that he could better inspect them, and whoever was casting them should have been Pulled along for the ride. It was a simple spell, too, and rather hard to counter. Impossible to counter, actually, unless he was dealing with a very powerful Wizard, and there hadn’t been one of those in his Bisection for a long time.

Avandrasolaro turned the Pulling gesture into an Annihilation, weaving Exalted power into a beam of strength that obliterated the world in a column stretching from himself to the… sparks…

Hmm.

A meters-wide length of silent, wrathful power had extended from Avandrasolaro’s front, complete in its destruction to a stretch of reality between here and the target, but when it struck the target, it struck nothing. Or rather, Nothing. The Annihilation had touched upon something stronger than itself, and became… Nothing.

What could possibly be causing this? Answers came fast enough. The Fae, the Dark, a Divinity of some sort. No other options.

Avandrasolaro calmly said to his people, “My subjects and friends. If you do not wish to be involved in whatever this is, please leave. I think it is here for me—”

Writing appeared on the empty air, words in some unknown language spilling out across a very small slice of reality, as though they were surfacing from another dimension. Which had to be exactly what was happening. Avandrasolaro didn’t understand the words themselve—

Ah. Dwarvish. That one is understandable. Archaic, but—

A lot of things happened all at once, as Avandrasolaro read the words upon the air. They read ‘We come to rescue you, Avandrasolaro, and all who desire to be rescued from the dreams of the Dark. We have room for you all, but you are all we can reach. Don’t evacuate anyone. Anyone who leaves this area is completely lost to us.’

Of the many simultaneous events happening, the first was that Avandrasolaro felt a Truth behind those words.

Secondarily, all his Gates stopped working, and each one filled with soft shadows. The clouds outside of the Grand Hall became things of Gloom. The land beyond turned indistinct.

The subjects of the Bisection read the same words that Avandrasolaro had read upon that Empty Gate, and while he was still calm and rapidly becoming not calm, a few people panicked and stepped away fast, through side doors, straight into Shadows and Gloom, like they couldn’t even see that blackness.

Prognostications failed; everything turned indistinct beyond this Time, this place, wherever this place was. Avandrasolaro had thought he had known where he was, but, no. This was not the Grand Hall. This was not a Judgment Day of his making.

He knew what this was.

He had died, and he had been living a dream.

A Dark Dream.

How had he died? He did not know—

A great wind flowed through all of reality. The scents of Exalted Order flowed away, through a hole in this time and space, directly into Darkness.

A king, another king, a strange demon priestess, and a blonde fox stood on the other side of that hole into Darkness. Each of them were prepared for diplomacy where they held all the cards and Avandrasolaro had nothing except himself to offer. But that’s what they were here for, wasn’t it. You didn’t go digging around in the Dark for little things. You also didn’t go digging around in the Dark without the Dark’s permission, or at least his ambivalence. You didn’t do dangerous rituals without a true desire...

… That fox was Guile. Avandrasolaro would recognize the ten tails of that gluttonous fae anywhere, even if his form was vastly different from usual. Could be an impostor, but probably not.

In the five seconds since the opening, not much had changed in the Grand Hall, except everything had changed forever.

Everyone in this room was dead.

Everyone in this room could live again.

If the people who had summoned Avandrasolaro wanted anything approaching reasonable, he would do whatever they wanted in order to save his people—

Oh Holy Gods, what could have happened to kill them all?—

Avandrasolaro banished that awful thought, for the Dark was already crawling upon his skin and eating away at his very self. The people beyond the Dark tried to say something, but he was not having it. “Save my people and I will do whatever you want, within reason!” He shouted at everyone who hadn’t run away. “Go through the portal! NOW.”

The lead man on the other side called back, “Come quick! Your world is collapsing!”

Avandrasolaro stood from his throne as Darkness crawled into the Grand Hall from every shadow, from every opening in every wall, from behind every column. He threw his wings wide, pieces of himself cast into the Black, to hold back the tide of Black, his power and soul disintegrating instead of his people who still didn’t know what to do. Some were quick on the uptake; primarily his children. Avandrasolaro loved them for that—

And then the people beyond the Gate sent in their own squad of warriors, and Avandrasolaro heard the Wizards beyond the Dark call them their ‘girls’. The family resemblance was noticeable. Avandrasolaro’s opinion of these high tier resurrectionists improved by a lot, both by how the girls moved as organized units, and how they held back the Dark a whole lot better than Avandrasolaro could.

People disintegrated before they reached the Gate…

But the Wizards pulled souls back together, twisting them into forms made of Nothing, or whatever it was that existed beyond this death. The alvani and dwarves and demons and elves and otherwise were not the same as they once were, as they slept there on the other side, and priests and paladins organized sleepers into groups. Physically, they looked like humans. Avandrasolaro couldn’t feel them, though, as some other reality invalidated this one.

Which was true. This reality was dead and dying even faster.

As the Darkness closed in and Avandrasolaro moved toward the Gate, his everything flaking away, his proto-divinity shredding, he could not help but wonder what lay beyond this death. Because he would survive. The Wizards seemed highly competent as they frantically turned free-floating souls into people once again. Only humans, though, which was concerning, even though there was some sort of demon over there with them...

Maybe he could fall in proper love once again, like he had when he was young.

No doubt there’d be more worlds to explore, too...

- - - -

It had been frantic.

And now, for the moment, it was over.

Erick sat down on a conjured chair, sighing in relief. Solomon joined him. The others were busy looking over everyone, as they slept in groups on white stone platforms above the slime dungeon main floor, out and away from the Gate. Both he and Solomon were fucking exhausted.

That had been a lot of magic, as quick as they could do it.

The Grand Hall was gone. They almost hadn’t been fast enough. Erick glanced over toward the Black Gate and the space beyond. What was once a hallway of Judgment was now a kaleidoscope of prismatic black, like it usually was.

“So that worked out?” Solomon asked, teasing sort of, but exhausted and not at the top of his game.

“I wanted to ask him to bring everyone he cared about into the room before we proceeded, hoping that he would believe me, but expecting that he would not. I was hoping it would take awhile between his realization of what was happening and the total collapse of that place. Time to talk and be cryptic, to allow for the saving of more people…”

Solomon finished Erick’s thought, “There was no way it was ever going to work out perfectly.” And then he added, “Let’s take solace in that it worked at all.”

Erick looked to the left, to where Avandrasolaro slept upon the ground.

The processes of summoning angels and demons were practically the same; involving Elemental Exalted or Vile which then got turned into proper Angelic and Demonic when interfaced with an actual sentient collection of that sort of person. They were almost elementals in that way. Summoning and controlling them was a lot more difficult than just [Conjure Force Elemental]… But not really.

But Avandrasolaro was a real person now; not just a conjured being made of Elemental Angel.

Erick had done that. He had taken Avandrasolaro and turned him into a real person, who was also an angel.

Avandrasolaro lay on his back, on a thin mattress. He was brown and muscular and bald, and a towel covered his dignity. His weapons were mostly lost in the transfer, but even now, Erick watched as his Angelic soul manifested those weapons in the air beside him. Just tiny daggers for now, but they would grow to fullness soon enough, especially with that much power inside that man. He didn’t appear to be a demigod anymore, but… Who knew what the future held.

That man was technically the only real angel on Veird, as far as Erick knew. Sure, the Converter Angel on the moon Celes could come back through a strong enough ritual to that effect, and she would also be a true angel on Veird, but that wasn’t likely to happen as far as Erick knew. That Converter Angel was on the moon, doing moon-side things, like talking to dead people and other stuff. Erick had never met that Converter Angel in as long as he had been at Candlepoint in the last 11 years, but he had heard of her now and again. Apparently, she was the Converter Angel; she had never been killed, like all the Breach Demons were eventually killed. She just went away until it was time to come back to exact revenge against the demons and their incani children.

Which had been a minor mindfuck, but enough sources corroborated it that Erick believed it.

Erick said, “I hope he can actually end the Forever War.”

“He’ll need to regain power,” Lorizal said, standing near the angel, staring down at Avandrasolaro like he was a certain kind of salvation. “The Church of Peace is ready to help that happen.” Lorizal looked up at Erick. “We hope House Benevolence will be there beside us as we work to end the Forever War.”

Erick shut that down, “Sorry, no. House Benevolence will not step into the Forever War; we are neutral. But Solomon here will be helping with that, as soon as we’re done here in this Sundering Search, and other such Dark investigations.”

Solomon bowed his head. He was still sitting, still tired.

Other people were working right now.

Guile sat near Avandrasolaro’s head, looking down at him, studying the angel. And then he looked up at a hovering shard of manifested Angelic. It was still growing, tiny motes of power continually gathering, crystallizing, as angels always did. Erick thought it might become a sword; he wasn’t sure. It certainly wasn’t going to become a mace.

Guile spoke up, “This summoning was unorthodox, but it seems to have worked out.” He looked to Erick. “You are a Strong Wizard, aren’t you.”

Erick nodded. “I’ve been told that; yes.”

Guile hummed and looked back to the shard of not-metal, hovering in front of him. “Everything you did with this summoning was wrong, but it still worked out. Or maybe I am the one who is wrong. Magic certainly doesn’t work like it used to work.”

Solomon asked, “What did he do wrong?”

Erick was interested, too.

Guile said, “Nothing, as far as I could see. The spellwork to open the way, the power displayed in that opening, the layering of intent, the pulling of purpose. Even the crafting of auric power afterward, in the frantic re-embodying of all these people… But something still feels wrong, and I cannot put my paw on it. I will inform you when I come to a theory.”

“Probably the anti-meme,” Solomon said, offhandedly.

Erick thought so, too. But to get back to the topic, “How would you have summoned people from the Dark?”

“A year of preparation. Tracking down every single piece of the person I could find. Cherished memories locked into items to use as bait. Finding a good spot in the Dark to plumb, and having to pass a Trial of the Dark to get a single opportunity— though I suppose you’ve done plenty of Trials already. And then there would be about an hour-long Calling. Maybe a week-long Calling in some cases.”

Erick asked, “I can understand most of that, but at the end of the day the final ritual shouldn’t take that long, should it? It’s just pulling someone from a different reality into this one. A simple translation from one harmonic reality to another. It's a complicated Rift, but not much more than that. When you line up all the pieces, anyway.”

Solomon added, “The Dark used to be a lot larger, so I assume that would account for most of the change in Calling times.”

“That’s a good point,” Erick said. “Though I assume the Dark could help with that if they were so inclined.”

“Melemizargo and the Dark both seem very inclined these days,” Solomon said.

Guile frowned. He looked at the two of them. “What’s Rift Magic?”

Erick paused before he answered, because the nature of that question hit him rather solidly. He looked to Solomon, and Solomon returned the confused look.

Solomon asked Guile, “Do you not know Rift Magic? —Oh wait. Translation error?”

Guile waited.

Erick said, “It’s opening barriers between this world and side-dimensions. Other wavelengths of existence. Other frequencies— Ah…” That wasn’t helping. Those were all physics terms. Erick tried, “Other resonances? Like this world exists on a certain level, and all the other Elements exist on another level; separate from this main world yet still existent in their own world. Like Fairy is just on the other side of Springtime—” Guile seemed to understand that, so Erick finished with, “—and Rift Magic is weakening the walls and allowing that other dimension to spill through into this one.”

Guile nodded. “Rift Magic, yes. I recall Rift Magic now. And yes, this is sort of like Rift Magic.”

… He was deflecting. Why was he deflecting?

Solomon noticed, too. He said to Erick, “You’ve been working on that multiversal theory of magic.”

Ah. Yes. Erick explained, “All magic is basically all Rift Magic.”

Solomon continued, “I imagine that this sort of knowledge used to be rather widespread, actually. For how could there be advanced civilizations of magic users out there without knowing this? [Gate] is rather wide spread, and there were a lot of Wizards in the Old Cosmology making nodes in their chosen Elements to use as Gate Nodes.”

… Erick was suddenly not tired anymore.

“Fairy Moon knew what she was doing when she made me realize Benevolence,” Erick said. “You should know about this stuff, Guile. You should know very well about all of this.”

Guile looked a little lost.

“… I don’t think it’s a translation error, Erick,” Solomon said, as he looked around.

Moments ago, people had been listening to them, trying to decide what the Wizards were talking about, but now they were back to investigating the new arrivals and talking amongst themselves about what came next.

Guile, meanwhile, was narrowing his eyes at nothing in particular, his gaze darting back and forth just a little bit. At the mention of Fairy Moon, though, he focused hard.

Fairy Moon stepped to Erick’s side, looking around. She noticed Avandrasolaro and all the others right away, but she was mostly turning her face this way and that, as though she were seeing something that wasn’t there.

Panic began to rise within Erick, like a leviathan from the depths. He checked on his most precious things in the world.

The girls were all fine. There was Abigail, Beth, Candice, Emily, and Jane—

“You can see them now, can’t you!” Debby’s bracelet shifted on her arm as she yelled at them, “Tell me you can see them too! Please!”

“See wha—”

There was something red in the air.

Scattered, jagged cracks, floating like crimson snow—

- - - -

“Of course I know of Rift Magic,” Guile said. “This is clearly a different application of it than I would have done. Seems like you must be tapping into Fate Magic, too.”

Erick shrugged. And then he looked down at Avandrasolaro. “Want to wake the big guy up?”

Unanimous consent among all those involved soon had Poi unraveling the [Sleep] spell he had put on Avandrasolaro.

The angelic ruler of a trillion people and the founder of the legendary Bisection, opened his dark eyes. His still-regrowing weapon-shard wings began to grow much faster as a white-gold light shone from Avandrasolaro’s soul and eyes, and collected upon his weapons, crusting them over, before shattering to reveal full-sized swords and daggers and maces. In a flash his towel flipped away, leaving behind a kilt he had been wearing on the throne.

Erick, Solomon, Guile, and Lorizal stood near him. Everyone else had retreated.

Avandrasolaro sat up, giving a glance to the sleeping forms of all the other people who had been inside the Judgment Day hall. And then he looked at Erick, Solomon, Guile, and Lorizal. He got to his feet, and then he bent the knee, bowing toward them, saying, “A rescue from Dark Death is a priceless boon, and to give the same to my family and friends is too generous. Give me your greatest command and I will see it done, whether it takes me ten thousand years or more.”

Erick was thankful that this whole thing was going so well. Avandrasolaro was swift on the uptake, and willing to do what it took to save his people first, and then himself. He had been the last one through the Black Gate, and Erick respected that a great deal. For those reasons and for all the stuff he had seen during the day of Judgment, Erick didn’t foresee any problems with agreeing to this sort of arrangement the Angel was proposing.

Erick said, “End the Forever War through as peaceful and prosperous of means as you can.”

Avandrasolaro went stock-still. He thawed as he spoke, “I will… have to make an assessment on this request before I can agree to such a thing, but the basic idea has merit and I am interested in working toward that goal.”

“Most of the work has already been done,” Erick said, “Over 1400 years ago, the Old Demons screwed up and erased alvani from existence, while making their own forceful union of demon and human viable as a species called incani. Over the next hundred years, the incani murdered all the Old Demons to the very last and took over as the rulers of Elemental Vile, but instead of peace, the Forever War continues between Angels and the New Demons to this day. It spills down to mortal descendants in the phenomenon known as the Quiet War.” Erick gestured to Lorizal, “Lorizal Ex is one of those descendants of demons, but she is not involved in the war. She is a priestess of Koyabez, of Peace, and has been dedicated to the end of all wars for most of her life.

“And there’s so much more than that going on.

“But please, rise,” Erick said, “I would speak with you about a lot, and I’m sure you have lots of questions, too.”

Avandrasolaro rose steady on his feet, a light frown upon his face, filled with concern and unsaid questions. He did not speak, though. He waited. He observed Lorizal deeply, and then he moved to Erick and Solomon, and finally Guile. Surprise lit upon his face when he realized Guile was actually Guile, but he said nothing. He waited.

Erick said, “… Anyway. There’s no great rush to go out crusading or anything like that. We’re in a period of peace right now. But the Forever War could start up again once we’re expanding out to new worlds, and we don’t want that to happen. We wish for an end to the cycle of violence, and that is why we brought you back from the Dark. We want peace and prosperity for all.” Erick gestured to Solomon, saying, “This is my brother. We’re of comparable actual power, though I have a lot more political power in this world, but we’re practically the same person anyway. He wants to work with you to end the Forever War. Do you have any major questions, before we get to the actual questions of what all is truly going on here?”

Avandrasolaro asked, “Am I to be your lapcat for eternity? Or a partner? Or have you summoned me as Ruler of the Bisection?”

“I absolutely do not mind if you become a partner, or even something of a ruler once again.” Erick gestured to his people, still sleeping on conjured mattresses and under conjured blankets all across stone platforms. There were 167 of them. “Your people are here and they’re free to make their own decisions and become rulers, too, if they’re able. They’re all human for right now, because that’s simply how we had to make it work, but I can change them into better bodies soon enough.

“All that is likely going to happen in the next few days, weeks, or months, is that you and your people will become more secure in yourselves over at some property of mine, known as the Wake Up House. I have been bringing people back to life or giving them new lives for a while now, and that’s where almost all of those people spend some time after that event.”

Avandrasolaro took a moment, then he asked, “Who are you?”

“Ah. Sorry. I’m Erick Flatt, Wizard of Benevolence, of House Benevolence, Apparent King, and some might call me one of the most powerful persons on this planet… And a lot of those words mean very little to you, which is to be expected.”

Avandrasolaro said, “No. I am asking, who are you, to pull us all out of the Dark like this.”

Erick wasn’t quite sure how to answer that—

Solomon said, “The living treaty between all the various antagonistic forces of this world, to ensure that we all learn how to get along until such time as he can pass that power onto others, and the means by which we will all get going into new worlds, after the Sundering destroyed the Old Cosmology 1451 years ago. You died 180,000 years ago, by the way, but the Dark has been holding onto you for a long time.”

Avandrasolaro went stock still again, even the soft movements of his wing weapons freezing in place. Except for his eyes. His eyes focused on Erick.

“… This is a lot to take in,” the angel said, not fully grasping all that Erick had explained.

“Completely understandable,” Erick said. “So how about we get you and your people into some better accommodations and I set you up to learn all about what is happening here on your own time?” Erick lifted his hand and all the sleeping people rose into the air, all across the nearby space, as the Apparent King took a step into the air himself, light spilling out below his feet. “We have to leave the dungeon first in order to do that, so if you would please follow me.”

A flash of light swept out of Erick as he laid a ten-meter wide staircase of solid Benevolence in the air, like an illuminated path leading from the Black Gate area, up to the exit of the dungeon in the center of the dungeon, high in the sky. It was wide enough for every single person in the group to walk, but it would take a few minutes to walk because the exit was five kilometers away.

It was a good distance. It would allow for many, many questions to spill out of Avandrasolaro.

To get that tide of questions moving, Guile sidled up to him, saying, “Welcome back, Avandrasolaro. They brought me back a few days ago.”

Erick stepped up the path and the sleeping people followed, floating in the air beside the way out.

After a moment Avandrasolaro followed too, concern still etched deep on his face. But he saw his people were fine, and no one was making any moves on him, and Guile seemed to be a familiar face. He said to the small fox, walking at his side, “Are you ready to admit you were wrong to try and eat my wife? Do you apologize for everything that happened after that?”

Guile frowned, his tails going stiff… And then he relaxed. In a small, yet sincere way, he said, “I am sorry I tried to eat your wife.”

“Then we are settled,” Avandrasolaro said, with strength. And then, softer, he smiled, and said, “It is good to see you again, old friend. It seems you have a habit of turning up in my life at the strangest times.”

“You have no idea how strange.”

Avandrasolaro looked across the dungeon space, at the Dark, and at the slimes playing in the waters, and at the iridescent black beyond the Black Gate, saying, “I’ve seen strange things before.”

Guile chirped, laughing as foxes did, then he said, “They call where we were the Old Cosmology, Avandrasolaro. This is the New Cosmology, as in an entirely new universe, because the old one was destroyed in a grand Sundering. The entire thing. Gone.”

“… I don’t believe you.”

“It is rather unbelievable,” Guile said, nodding.

Avandrasolaro looked around again. “… But what I do believe... Is that trust is better than distrust in initial meetings between non-antagonistic forces, and even sometimes among antagonists.” He looked to Erick. “If you give me a reason to distrust you then it will be a lot harder to work with you going forward.”

The threat was implied.

Erick said, “I would expect nothing less. In the following days, I will be proving myself as a cooperative resource for you to call upon when needed.” Erick paused his walk, as he realized something else needed to be said. He turned. He looked at Avandrasolaro. The angel suddenly stopped on the stairs in response to Erick. Everyone stopped. Erick took a moment, then said, “I’m very sorry we couldn’t grab everyone you knew and loved. All I could reach was you, and the people in that room. We spent hours looking at you, but we had no good indication of when it was proper to interrupt, or how anything truly worked on that Judgment Day. Guile provided some information, but you’re little more than a memory of a brighter past to those of us living in this world right now. I had hoped to be able to tell you to gather everyone you loved… I’m very sorry, Avandrasolaro. I did what I could. I am not asking for your forgiveness right now, but I hope that one day you might give that forgiveness.”

Avandrasolaro was tense as Erick spoke. He was not used to his new, physical body, either. He noticed his own tension and seemed appalled at himself for a moment, but then Erick said what he had said, and brain chemicals and physiological responses took hold in a way that was clearly uncomfortable for the big man. A few tears fell, shimmering white-gold as they traced tracks down brown skin. Avandrasolaro spoke through his pain, “I was dead, and now I live again, instead of being a would-be-forgotten memory. I thank you for doing this for me and for all the people you managed to save. It is more than anyone could have asked for.”

He seemed sincere.

It was as much as Erick could hope for.

Erick said, “I’m still sorry we couldn’t save more.” Erick turned, and began walking up the stairs again. “Got any questions?”

Avandrasolaro and the whole contingent of others resumed walking.

Silence stretched.

And then the big angel asked, “Read any good books lately?”

Erick huffed a tiny chuckle; there and then gone.

The atmosphere lightened.

And Erick said, “I haven’t read much recently; not for enjoyment, anyway. I have a friend who reads everything she can get her hands on, though, and she told me about a series called ‘Whispers in the Pantry’ that she wanted me to read. It’s apparently a well-regarded comedy of errors, about a young man meeting women and turning them into his enemies through his own ineptitude…”

The conversation continued, with Avandrasolaro talking of books, and then Erick mentioning movies. It was an exchange of culture practically 200,000 years distant from each other, and yet people were mostly people. Eventually the group reached the surface and Avandrasolaro stared at the brilliant blue sky, his questions falling silent as he took in the sight of the moons in the east, rising above the horizon like three drops of color upon the endless blue; a drop of white, a silver drop, and a bit of pink.

“That would be Celes of the Angels, the Silver Star of Koyabez, and Hell of the Demons,” Erick explained. “We can talk about that later if you want, but for now—” Erick opened a [Gate] to the Wake Up House, to the reception room, where nurses and doctors were dressed as professional as they could dress and Director Magnin stood ready to receive his new patients. “This [Gate] takes us to the Wake Up House, far away from here. Getting back here will be easy because I have a Gate Network up and running…”

Erick stepped through as he explained, carrying all the sleeping kings and queens of the Bisection with him in a softly floating train. Avandrasolaro followed. And the others followed him.

Events proceeded rapidly and sometimes painfully slow as people got situated and woken up and tempers flared or emotions turned dark and depressive. Avandrasolaro calmed all that he could and then the panic started but was quickly quashed by others. Lorizal got to talking with Avandrasolaro about the Forever War. Solomon spoke with Avandrasolaro about this and that. Erick introduced the man to his daughters, all 6 of them, and also to his friends, and then Avandrasolaro started getting some really concerning questions about the nature of the world.

So Erick took the angel and Solomon on a small tour of the world, to show him how the Gate Network functioned and some places of interest; the human kingdoms of Greensoil, the incani kingdoms of the Wasteland, the mixed demi nations of the Songli Highlands, and the orcols of Treehome and a bunch of other places. Avandrasolaro had kept himself in reserve, but now he started to actually ask about what would happen next. Erick asked about what he could actually do, which was still a mystery, and Avandrasolaro let go of some of his trepidation. He spoke of his powers a little bit, warming up in a certain kind of way, finally beginning to believe that this truly was happening.

And then Erick introduced the angel to House Benevolence, and Candlepoint.

The entire trip was a whole big thing for Avandrasolaro, but for Erick and Solomon, it was running through everything they knew about the world, and simply repeating it in a way that Avandrasolaro could understand.

They cut the world tour short, though, because Avandrasolaro’s people were starting to get truly pushy with their demands, and more than one of them wanted a [Reincarnation] into something else. Erick was happy to oblige, trying to make the new people as comfortable as possible.

But there were limits to his generosity. No elves. No dwarves; at least not yet, and no, he didn’t have any real good reason for that. No; he couldn’t do alvani at all, for many reasons, all of those reasons being the same as why he couldn’t do elementassi; the Death of All Halves was still in effect in certain ways. An old dragonkin body? Like with wings? Erick tried that, and he succeeded. The resulting person was extremely happy, and yet still reserved. They kinda reminded Erick of Rats, that old guard of his who quit long ago. He was living down with Messalina’s entourage last Erick heard, but that was years ago; the guy did his damnedest to avoid Erick at all times, too, so Erick never really pursued that reconnection.

Eh.

Some people wanted to be orcols after they saw orcols for the first time. Erick explained about Aloethag and all that, but everyone who wanted to be an orcol already knew what they were signing up for; these people were not dumb, after all. Erick granted them their wishes.

And that’s what started a whole round of everyone else suddenly wanting different bodies; more beautiful, more perfect, more whatever-they-wanted. Erick had seen this before and he had given the same sort of response to that demand for beauty time and time again. He simply told people that one more change was all they would get, until they proved themselves as beneficial to the entire world, at which point he would be happy to renew their [Reincarnation]s.

Avandrasolaro confronted Erick about that later. “You can really give everyone eternal life?”

They were in the side rooms of the Wake Up House, where Erick was going over the [Reincarnation] applications of many different people, many of them not of his most recently-revived group. Mostly, he let people choose whatever they wanted, because sometimes people needed to make mistakes before they learned what they actually wanted, and that was fine. He still tried to help people avoid mistakes, though, like someone wanting to be a red-skinned orcol; those simply did not exist in a natural state. Sure, there were red-skinned orcols from Ar’Cosmos, specifically those from House Carnage, but those were red because of an influx of Carnage Dragon essence; they weren’t naturally red. Erick was hesitant of adding something like that to the basic gene pool. In that particular case, Aleothag would likely have something to say about all that, and so would Treehome. Raging orcols were often red-tinted with Carnage, so no real orcol would appreciate seeing another orcol ‘Raging’ all the time; that was one point of cultural contention between Treehome and Ar’Cosmos these days. Such a [Reincarnation] would cause Treehome to send letters.

It had happened before.

“I can certainly bridge the gap between immortal and mortal, but not for all always,” Erick said, “But this particular magic is getting around to others. Solomon can do it, as can another, as can my boyfriend Quilatalap. I and Solomon might be the only people who are doing this in an organized, ‘for most people’ sort of way.”

Avandrasolaro stared at him. “… So you really are Xoat. As those people say.”

Erick laughed. “I don’t know. Probably not. That’s just what a few people are calling me.”

Avandrasolaro was rather sure Erick was lying to himself.

The angel asked, “Are you lying to yourself?”

Erick smiled. “Maybe! Let me know if you should come across a particularly noteworthy link between me and Xoat that I haven’t already derided. I’m sure the Xoatists have a whole list of reasons why I am Xoat, right alongside the publicly-stated reasons I have given for why I am not.”

Erick wasn’t speaking in hyperbole there; the Xoatists really did have that sort of writing. Erick had seen it a few times and felt his answers were rather strong in all cases, but the Xoatists believed… And Erick had mostly gotten over that.

Avandrasolaro huffed a small laugh, his weapon-wings lifting up and out a fraction, in what Erick was rapidly coming to learn meant something like a ‘smile’. His mannerisms as an angel were almost the same as other angels Erick had met, but they were also more. Other angels were just summoned creatures, but Avandrasolaro was a real person. He seemed to be adjusting well to both his body, and his current circumstances, though he had a habit of only wearing a very short kilt, which Solomon probably appreciated more than Erick; Erick had a boyfriend—

“I believe I have decided where I wish to base my operations,” Avandrasolaro said.

“Oh? Already?” Erick was a little surprised at that. It had only been several days since Avandrasolaro’s resurrection. “Sure. Where?”

“On the island east of Dungeon Island. It is rather untamed, as far as I have heard.”

“Done and done,” Erick said, “I can get a part of the Network out there as early as tomorrow. Would you like help building?”

Avandrasolaro was puzzled for a moment. “You really are letting us go.”

Erick smiled at that. “I’m pretty sure some of your people want civilization, and I have no problem with raising other people to power, so yes. You can ‘go’ wherever you want, as long as you do what you normally do and bring peace and prosperity to all. In order to do that, it will require your people interfacing with all the other people of this world. Which means my Gate Network.” Erick added, “Though it’s kinda Kiri’s now, or at least it will be soon enough. You can make your own Network too, if you want. I think all of my daughters and my brother are on the Worldly Path too, right now.”

Avandrasolaro regarded Erick, and then nodded. “I am also on this... ‘Quest’, right now.”

Erick smiled, and continued, “I’m rather glad you’re sticking your flag into an unclaimed part of the world. It would have been messy for you to try and integrate with any other society with a direct move into their territory.”

Avandrasolaro nodded, satisfied with that answer.

“So what are your first moves going to be against the Forever War? Have the Angels and Demons contacted you for real talks yet? Or are you still in preliminary talks?”

“Both have contacted me halfway. It was… An enlightening experience, to say the least. I will not say that their problems are minor and completely of their own making...” Avandrasolaro discarded whatever complicated thought he had, and said, “This world has many different problems, but I truly enjoy the prospect laid before me, that ‘Everything can always be made better’.”

Erick smirked. “I believe that, too.”

They spoke for a little while longer regarding actual plans, mostly involving the city Avandrasolaro wished to build, but soon the conversation wound down.

Avandrasolaro said, “I believe I will be accepting Solomon and your daughter’s offer to ‘dungeon delve’ with them, as will many of my people.”

“Good luck. The dungeons that actually give base mana production require you to risk your life. Magic is apparently the same everywhere, but it’s also different. Don’t go in unprepared.”

Avandrasolaro smiled. His wings spread a little, but they were still trapped at his back because they were in a building. “I am prepared.” And then he lifted a hand and conjured an orb of power that was almost frost, but not that at all. It was Time Magic. “I may not have met with the Angels and Demons as much as I would have liked, but Phagar was very helpful.” He crushed the spell in his hand, and let it dissipate as fractured white-gold light.

“Congratulations. He doesn’t approve many people for that.”

Avandrasolaro looked at Erick, and said, “I know.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. “Phagar was controlling Time even before the Sundering?”

Avandrasolaro huffed a small laugh, as though Erick’s suggestion was so far outside the realm of possibility that it became hilarious. “No. But his church was the only one you could learn proper Time Magic from.”

“Ah. Well that makes a lot more sense; yes.”

- - - -

Three days later, with Avandrasolaro and his people hovering high in the air with Erick and a thousand others in attendance either physically or through [Scry] eyes, Erick prepared to work some magic, using Ophiel to cast his gaze wide and deep, into the northern peninsula of the northeast island of the Three Sisters. Unlike Dungeon Island proper, this place was a wild monster-covered land, with unknown dungeons and unknown beasts everywhere, and it changed with the months. Nothing was permanent. Between months, sometimes even the trees moved. Other than all that, this place was a good spot to make a new city, in this new land, in this new world.

Through Erick, this new city would have good access to the three cities of Dungeon Island and thus Candlepoint, and thus all the rest of the world.

It just needed some prep work before people could live here.

And so, Erick leveled the land with Ophiel and [Physical Domain], pummeling stone, trees, monsters, and every living thing to dust within a 200 kilometer diameter space, mostly nestled to the coast on two sides. He had done extensive [Cascade Imaging] to make sure no people or sapient living things were down there, but he was destroying a whole lot of wild monsters. Treants, slimes, oozes, monkey-like things, deadly and peaceful birds, and even just the local wildlife. A small part of Erick didn’t like ‘nuking’ the land from ‘orbit’ to make way for people, but people mattered more than animals, and this land was beyond deadly unless such massive steps were undertaken.

Ophiel finished flattening the land after ten minutes of easy work.

All the land was dirt and rock and mulched trees and biomass. It would be rather fertile land, but that was for later. For now, Erick [Cityshape]d the land, erecting a simple city, separating biomass from stone and solidifying stone into proper strength. He made apartment buildings instead of individual houses, and then he added basic city infrastructure like roads and gathering yards and a courthouse, along with walls to guard from monsters and tunnels for sewer systems, which would be installed later by a professional sewermaster. That took another half hour. When he was done, a city stood strong upon the coast, made of white stone and grey rock. It was not perfect. It was not ready for habitation right now.

But it would be.

The final thing Erick installed was a Gate which connected to Aniduun. It was not a part of the local area network; it was a simple, permanent portal from here to there.

Erick set down on the ground, and Avandrasolaro joined him.

Erick turned to the angel. “By right of power, and with no other people to gainsay my actions, I bequeath this land to you and your people. It is yours now, and I am a guest, if you would have me.”

Avandrasolaro breathed deep, and surprise showed on his face along with the faces of his people. “You know some impressive words, Wizard Flatt.”

“Guile told me what to say for a proper ceremony that might mean something to you.”

Avandrasolaro chuckled. “I accept your gift, and invite you and yours as guests to our home.”

Erick smiled. “Excellent! I was hoping you would.” He opened a [Gate] to the side, where a small parade of people marched on through with Solomon in the lead, floating an entire roast cow behind him and ten barrels of different wine and beer. It was a feast coming through, made special for the day. Guile carried a plate of mashed potatoes above his little foxy self that had been sculpted into a grand castle ten times the size of the fox; it was a display piece almost too big and too piled high for any party to finish off. At Avandrasolaro’s open stare, and slight upturn of his lips as he looked upon his old friend, Erick added, “Guile suggested a commemorative feast, but I had to tell him to stop telling me what to do because Solomon was already on this part. He did want to give you a castle, though, but this one is made of potatoes.”

“Solomon is certainly competent, and Guile...” Avandrasolaro’s voice trailed away as he grinned.

Erick nodded, and then he walked forward.

Solomon rapidly began adding decorations everywhere, as he set out one roast cow and then ten more, [Duplicate]d from the same perfectly cooked meal, each with their own small firepit to keep them warm, while Lorizal and others from the Church of Peace began organizing everything else, for real. Guile was quick on the instructions, and it seemed he had somehow hired even more caterers than Erick had imagined he would have; the little guy was very into parties, it seemed. Where had he gotten the money? Probably from Solomon, actually.

Erick had nothing to do with any of that. He was just the provider of the venue.

Avandrasolaro sighed in contentment as he watched his people watch the feast take hold, under the bright light of the sun. All of the former kings and queens and even some of Avandrasolaro’s children were checking out the place, all of them having fallen into groups of their own making since the rescue a week ago. Most of them had become different species from human, too, and from there they fell into groups either mixed or not. All of them were talking of what they had learned, and how they would be moving forward in order to fulfill the Wizard’s request of Avandrasolaro, but also what came afterward. There was talk of business opportunity, and how most of them had met with Benevolence dragons and other titans of creation and industry.

Erick got the rapid impression that, through proper machinations, that all these people felt they could peacefully end the Forever War within a decade, and make sure it never came back within 50 years. But that would not take up all of their time; so what they were going to do the rest of the time was regain power, among other things.

Avandrasolaro took it all in, and said to Erick, “This Forever War is not going to be solved through violence.”

The angel had a drink in his hand by now, and the Wizard did, too.

“I would hope not,” Erick said, feeling unexpectedly good at hearing Avandrasolaro actually say that.

“When you first charged me with this Quest, and after I discovered some of the lay of the land, I thought the Forever War might be best solved through supreme violence, through cutting the heads off of the Crown of the Host and the Demon King and his entourage.” Avandrasolaro continued, “But that is not a solution here. There is no real Contract Magic, enforcing rules down lineages; there is only Elemental Vile, which is easily worked around, comparatively. There are no real demons anymore. The Angels are fueled by simple hate which is —at most— a thousand years old. That hate has been renewed through constant sabotage and terrorism, which is a problem, but nothing overly difficult to solve. There are no old monsters making sure that nothing ever gets better, for you have already dealt with all of those.

“This world is not capable of seeing an end to the Forever War, because they cannot envision it. But I can. We can. And yet...

“This is simultaneously one of the easier tasks than I have ever been given, but harder, because I am so unfamiliar with the cultures here. I am unfamiliar with the actual problems that keep the cycles of violence going. And I have no real power yet…” He looked at Solomon, copying a whole bunch of vegetables and fried things and cornbread and sauces and otherwise, and said, “But I will be gaining power again, and going forth, to complete this task. Solomon and your daughters have been very helpful in dungeonwork.”

Erick smiled. All was good; all was getting better. “I’m happy to hear all of that, Avandrasolaro. I’m glad we brought you back. I’m still sorry I couldn’t get more—”

Avandrasolaro waved a hand. “It is fine. My harem… Not many know this, but it had become a political thing long ago. In truth, there was very little love in my life, so there is no real love lost…” He wiped away a tear, mumbling about how physical bodies were strange, then he continued, “All is good, Wizard Flatt.” He sniffled, then banished his harder thoughts, and whispered conspiratorially, “Is Solomon spoken for?”

Erick froze and thawed at the same time. He muttered, “I’m so glad you didn’t ask about my daughters.”

Avandrasolaro raised an eyebrow. “Would they be interes—”

“Solomon is probably interested,” Erick said, “He can probably overhear us, too. So there’s that.”

Avandrasolaro smirked. “This is good to hear. I can’t have my people be the only ones going at it like 20 year olds.”

“Oh yes. A common side effect of being young again… And one I have not tried to curb. Probably do more harm than good to try and stop that phenomenon.”

Avandrasolaro smirked—

Guile stepped out of the air near Avandrasolaro, his foxy tails swishing. “I have heard there is a party going on in Fairy, if you’re interested, Avandrasolaro. I’m trying to convince Solomon to take me, but he seems averse to a good time.”

Erick laughed at that. “Do you want more party here, Guile?”

“Yes,” said the little blonde fox, absolutely resolute in his decision.

Soon, Erick was asking Solomon what he wanted to add to the party, and Solomon had a whole bunch of ideas, but no ability to execute those ideas. The loss of [Gate] in a world without [Teleport] was a big deal. Solomon seemed to be adjusting to that new world of his, though. It seemed that Solomon was really taking up this mantle of Peace, and making actual ties with the Church of Peace. Erick approved.

He also opened [Gate]s to all the world.

And soon, the little no-named city near Dungeon Island had people from all over the world, showing up for a good time. Fallopolis appeared, bringing shadeling assistance with her in the form of bands and entertainment, though they only had to fly over from Ascendant Mountain. Clan Void Song showed up from Songli, along with Nirzir, and Erick was happy to introduce one of the world’s best Songstresses and Archmages to Avandrasolaro and his collection of kings and queens from another time and place. Nirzir had long outgrown her child infatuation with Erick, and now she was just a good friend. House Benevolence appeared with Aisha taking the mantle of diplomat for this meeting. She was a good choice of diplomat, because Avandrasolaro and Aisha seemed to hit it off well. Both of them were very into Book Magic and prognostication… and Aisha was made of celesteel.

… Oh.

Well.

Avandrasolaro and Aisha looked… like they might get really close, really fast.

Prognostication was probably involved there.

Well good for them.

Somehow Solomon was a big black dragon, drinking beer and downing kegs like they were nothing, and that was fun.

Fairy Moon showed up, somehow, for someone must have called her, maybe, and suddenly the party was city wide and then wider.

Some monsters got into the party, but instead of raging and eating people, they danced along to Fae music, which was quite strange.

Erick realized as the sun set, and with Melemizargo as a witness on the edge of town, 50 meters tall and outsizing both he and Solomon many times over, that Erick had transformed into a dragon at some point too, trying to win a drinking game against his ‘brother’. The two of them had stopped copying keg after keg of basic-bitch wine and whiskey, and simply copied some free-flying divinely-silver-shimmering Peace wine. Koyabez was there, which explained the wine, for he had blessed all the wine at the party, which turned out to be quite amazing.

Over there was Rozeta and Kromolok, drinking Peace wine, too.

Atunir was talking to Avandrasolaro, speaking about kids and stuff like that, with Aisha standing in the background a little. Erick realized in that moment that of course the man with a thousand kids would be kinda put out that he could no longer sire children, since the Script wouldn’t allow it because of what the Old Demons had done. So of course he was looking for ways to actually make that happen.

Phagar was chatting with Sininindi by the stage with the band… One of the bands.

There were all the girls, here and there among the crowds, talking to whoever they were talking to. Abigail was talking with Sitnakov for obvious reasons, and both of them seemed to be laughing and smiling. Beth and Candice were having an exhibition match against each other with limited powers, using just swords, or something like that; they weren’t spiders so it wasn’t anything approaching their full power at all. Emily was talking with some of the people from the Bisection who had chosen odder [Reincarnation] forms. Two people who had been demons had chosen to become minotaurs, male and female, joining that very small group of people who were minotaurs here on Veird. From Erick’s understanding those two new minotaurs had already been welcomed to ‘the herd’. Another of the odder selections was a man who had asked if there was a way for him to be a mother, too. After some very personal questions, and then a cast of [Reincarnation], Erick felt he had succeeded in granting that desire. Or at least the man could grant himself that wish later, with whomever he wanted.

Debby was somewhere… Somewhere.

She was fine, wherever she was; Erick was sure. But to be sure, he contacted Poi, and Poi pointed out Debby at the party. She had been playing around with red magic on the coast. Maybe she wasn’t directly at the party, but that was fine. She seemed to be having fun with some people, and also Fairy Moon. Well that was fun.

And the night partied on.

Turns out Melemizargo could outdrink them all.

Erick and Solomon both called him a dirty cheater, but he just laughed at that.

- - - -

The party lasted for a few days, but eventually Erick had to get back to work.

Fairy Moon took her people back through Springtime, into Fairy. All of the semi-sapient monsters went with her because they had found sapience in that party and they did not want it to stop. A few of Avandrasolaro's people went with her, too, even though Erick had thoroughly explained what was happening. Those people were in a lot of pain, and they wanted the Fairy Party, and it was still hopping in Ar’Cosmos, and so they went. Erick felt he would probably have to rescue them later, except the Queen of the Fae appeared to Erick, and explained a few things.

He was Fairy Moon’s husband, her Queen, just like she was his King, and Erick had only seen him once, when all the other fae had been released from the Bands of Intent of the Script. He was every bit the dark, handsome man to complement Fairy Moon’s pastel coloring, and his name was Greg, short for gregarious. He was not a gregarious person. Erick had named him without really knowing who he was.

With dark seriousness, Greg said to Erick, “We take them to a time of less troubles and more merriment, but we do not harm them or hamper their rightful returns. So carry on with your causes of sundering the Sundering, our Wonderful Wizard of Benevolence.”

And that was that. The guests were gone.

Cleaning up took a day, and then the real work began, but Erick was not a part of that.

Solomon worked closely with Avandrasolaro, setting up the city with a node network, getting them some starter gold, showing them how dungeons worked, and a whole bunch of smaller things that Erick wanted to be a part of, but he could not. All the world was moving with the news of the return of an ancient demigod of ‘Angelic Peace’, as they were calling him, and Erick needed to fend off worrying questions from the Angels, the Demons, and their mortal counterparts. Thankfully, they were all just tiny questions; nothing big and direct from either House Dinnamoth, with the King of Hell, or the Crown of the Host, with Adavido. They were all gathering their wits right now to try and understand what Erick was doing.

Blood-On-Hell got a meeting with Erick, though. It was not a very big meeting, but it was still important. They simply wanted clearance from him to ‘set up shop’ in Avandrasolaro’s new city. Erick gave them his blessing, but told them that they’d have to speak to Avandrasolaro about all that. And then they asked for what they really wanted, which was a direct-access Gate from Avandrasolaro’s city to their holdings in the Wasteland. There was more to their question than what met the eye, but Erick eventually agreed that as soon as he got clearance from Avandrasolaro, then he would set up a Gate between the Wasteland and Avandrasolaro’s city, which he still had not named.

Avandrasolaro’s official request for that very same Gate came to his office ten minutes after the meeting.

The angel got his Gate to the Wasteland after another ten minutes.

Trade flowed.

- - - -

“Dad,” Debby said, as she stepped into his office. “I need to tell you something.”

Ophiel chirped on his perch beside Erick’s desk. “Debby Debby!”

“Of course.” Erick set down his pen. “What is it, Debby?”

“I’ve tried to say this a few times, and I think I might have finally gotten it right. This is going to sound mean and cryptic, but it’s none of those things. I love you. I have to drop out of the Sundering Search program. Please don’t ask me why.”

Erick was a little stunned at that. A thousand thoughts condensed to one. “I have to ask you a few questions, Debby. You can’t just drop that on me and expect me to say nothing.”

“I know. Don’t ask me about the Sundering Search.”

… Oh.

A lot of very different thoughts passed in that moment.

If she was telling him not to ask about the Sundering Search, then this was obviously about the Sundering Search. But she had specifically told him not to ask about that. So of course he wanted to ask about that.

This was the anti-meme.

Erick didn’t let his emotions show as he realized that Debby had probably tried to talk to him a lot over the past few days or even weeks. It had been about 2 weeks since they had brought Avandrasolaro out of the Dark. How long had Debby been trying to talk to him about this? She was not worried, though. Heartbeat fine. No sweating. This was rote trial and error for her. No one was in any true danger. She didn’t even expect this to work this time, because… Well it hadn’t worked yet, had it?

This had to be the anti-meme of the Sundering, or something nearby the Sundering.

How many experiments had she gone through? Jane had always been very experimental with her magic until all her experiments failed and she latched onto Prismatic Polymage, but she kept her physical approaches to various circumstances experimental when normal approaches did not work. She had never lost that particular spark for life.

Debby had inherited all of that, and so she had probably tried…

Debby was wearing the Bracelet of Memory; that Mind Magic artifact made by some Wizard in the past which ensured the wearer remembered everything they experienced. How long had she been wearing it? The physical object was a slave shackle, and it reddened her skin a little. She had to have been wearing it for a while. Why was her skin red, though—

Erick hadn’t noticed that before. And now he did.

Erick rapidly compartmentalized his thoughts. He turned off his mana sense and stopped looking at the Bracelet. The Bracelet vanished to his side-vision. Erick even turned away from the Bracelet, from Debby, and looked at the wall.

Debby’s heart beat hard. Erick had turned off his mana sense, but he could still hear heartbeats. He could still hear Debby’s deep breath. She was seeing hope in her father’s averted gaze.

Erick stared at the wall, not looking at his daughter, hoping that Debby would understand what he did next, as he said, “I’m disappointed, Debby. I don’t want you to explain yourself. I want you to leave, and return when you figure out what your problem is.”

Debby’s pulse raced. “I will, dad. I promise. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Debby.”

For a long moment, Debby stood there, on the other side of Erick’s desk. She wanted to say something more. To maybe discard this experiment and try again, to give him more information now that she had found a proper path forward. But. No. Debby breathed a few more times, her heart settling down as she made peace with what was happening.

Erick was still looking at the wall when Debby left. Tears stained his face. He didn’t have to fake that pain for whoever might be watching, and there was certainly someone watching, wasn’t there.

Erick learned one important thing.

Whoever was suppressing information about the Sundering was actively suppressing that information, and it was both stupid and strong. That the Sundering Source could drive Debby to enact multiple tests against him and yet not actually harm him or those around him meant that it had vast power, but little nuance; little ability to actually affect the world. Perhaps it had wiped certain people from his memory? But probably not. If it were capable of that, then it would have wiped Debby from his mind. So it wasn’t nearly as powerful as a basic Mind Mage, and—

… Erick learned two important things, for the corner of the room he was staring at held the Dark within.

Melemizargo was watching all this happen, but he didn’t show himself until ten minutes after Debby left, and after Erick’s tears dried. He whispered, “It’s hard to have those difficult conversations with daughters sometimes. I know I’ve tried a thousand times before, but sometimes the information just doesn’t stick like you want it to stick.”

“Heard and understood, Melemizargo. I’m not in the mood right now.”

The shadows bobbed and left, leaving Erick with even more questions and precious few answers.

Maybe this world was a liferaft and a cage.

- - - -

Later, but not much later, Erick had one test he needed to run himself.

He wrote down his interaction with Debby, sticking to specific words said only, and then he copied that letter a hundred times and sealed them up with some Privacy magics, before he sent those letters out to the mailroom, with orders to give him one every day, starting with one letter in the next ten minutes. Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn’t. No way to know until he tried.

And then he called Poi into his office.

Poi stared at Erick, already understanding what had happened. “… Well those are some big changes.”

“So you understand.”

“I understand that I understand nothing, except that it’s vastly powerful and yet weak.”

And that it can’t read minds, but the Mind Mages could.

Poi nodded.

Erick nodded. “Should we inform the Crossing?”

Poi went still. He said nothing, because to speak about the problem was to highlight the problem, and there was no way to know the outcome of spreading this fragment of knowledge too far. Perhaps the Crossing was infected.

“Not yet, then. Not until we’re ready,” Erick said.

Poi nodded.

It’s not like they actually knew anything that they didn’t already know…

Except it hurt a bit more, this time.

The letter system he had set up earlier deposited his letter to himself in his inbox. It said exactly what he remembered Debby saying.

- - - -

Later, on his way back to the dungeon, back to the girls who remained, Erick searched for Debby with every normal sense he could manage, but not with magic. If he searched with magic, then… Well he wasn’t sure what would happen. But he decided to trust his daughter, and leave her to it.

He could not find her with normal senses.

Debby was gone.