Chapter 73, 1/2

Chapter 73, 1/2

This hospital room was a lot nicer than the one that Poi and Kiri had used. This one was meant for long term care.

In a tower of the hospital, in a room half made of windows overlooking the western ocean, because Jane had chosen the ocean view, Jane laid in her bed, against the wall, watching the blue waters roll into the crescent, deep harbor of Oceanside. Her eyes blinked small, and inconsistent, as a metal rune in the headboard of her bed glowed dim. It was the [Sleep] spell, inscribed by a Mind Mage and activated by that same Mind Mage; a doctor at the hospital, a human woman named Alibeth. That rune was the only thing that was able to stop Jane from needing to puke over the side of her bed every two seconds.

It had taken them some effort and a lot of [Cleanse]ing to get Jane to that bed, but she was there, now, and it made Erick feel some kind of better. Not wholly good, but good enough for now. There was still a lot of work left to be done, now that Messalina’s parasitizing of Spur had been revealed and her Flare Couatl had attacked.

But for now, Erick watched over Jane from the side of the room.

Rats had come and gone; he was still busy with his hospital work. He had offered to move to this long term unit to help with Jane’s recovery, but Jane had insisted that he not worry about her. He had his [Greater Treat Wounds] quest to complete, and Jane wasn’t about to take him away from that. She had said this over several broken, sobbing, disgorging sentences, but she had said it just the same.

Teressa was meditating in the corner of the room, working on her Mana Sense. This long term care unit was apparently stocked full of doctors and nurses that were more than capable of defending their weakened patients, some of whom were foreign princes or the daughters of warlords, but most were just fishmonger’s wives, or other sick loved ones. Oceanside took in all kinds, regardless of their ability to pay, and protected them all the same, but Erick still felt safer knowing that Teressa was here and personally looking over his daughter.

Poi and Kiri were out of the room, filling out paperwork; Erick had already filled out most of it, but apparently there were subsequent pages that dealt with other things.

Oceanside took in and treated all kinds of sick people, regardless of their ability to pay, but that did not mean they helped for free. Jane, being a soldier of Spur’s Army, meant that she was here, officially, as a member of that Army, meaning that Spur would get the ‘bill’. But it wasn’t really a ‘bill’. As Erick understood it, there would be a heavy favor owed someday, maybe. Months in the future, weeks, years... Who knew? Whenever the Headmaster decided to call in that bargain of trade, he would call it in, personally. At least that’s what the admitting doctor said.

It all sounded rather sinister to Erick, but the doctor listed off several usual bargains, like putting up some Elites in the area for a month, or procuring supplies from the area like shadow essences, or coming to Oceanside to teach a class... They were all normal things, according to the admitting doctor, but as they listed those possibilities, they also looked at Erick with a bit of a stronger concern in their eyes. Erick had little doubt that whatever Jane and Spur were on the hook for, he was on the hook for, too.

And so Erick sat in a chair beside his daughter, watching over Jane, while she struggled to accept the [Sleep] washing over her. Ophiel watched from Erick’s shoulder. The little [Familiar] had tried to comfort Jane; to sit on her bed and gently nestle up against her leg, but she thrashed and puked, so Ophiel had to watch from Erick’s shoulder.

So Erick waited, watching his daughter the whole time. She was still in pain. If he could take this pain from her, he would, but the doctors and Alibeth all said that healing from Disintegrated Dragon Essence took time. It was a soul sickness; a corruption that told the body it was wrong. Right now, a battle raged between Jane’s body and her own ‘essence’, which was another name for ‘soul’.

And no, according to the doctors, ‘souls’ were not ‘essences’, just how all four-sided objects were not all squares. But it was a useful terminology for treating DDE, since dragon essences were more akin to souls than all the other essences. It was Alibeth who cleared up the confusion left for Erick by the other doctors. The Mind Mage had said that Jane’s own soul had started to change, and the removal of the dragon essence had halted that change.

The desert of her soul had tried to grow a tree. And though the tree had been killed, there were still a lot of roots in the ground, and leaves scattered on the dirt, and a whole trunk and lots of branches all just sitting around; dead. It would take time for the desert to reclaim what had tried to exist.

And so Erick sat beside Jane, watching her try to breathe calmly and fail, watching her struggle to sleep.

An old voice whispered from the open doorway, “Pardon my intrusion.”

Erick looked up. The Headmaster stood in the doorway, the same regal old man with white hair, wearing the same yellow and white emperor's clothes as always. Kiri and Poi stood behind him. Erick nodded, gesturing for him to come in, but he said nothing. The Headmaster nodded back, and walked into the room. Kiri and Poi followed, then shut the door behind them. Poi looked perfectly at ease, but Kiri looked paler than normal, as she tried not to look at the Headmaster. She was not nearly as pale as Jane, right now, but there was a similarity. Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

Erick asked, “Have you heard about Spur, yet?”

The Headmaster nodded, then said, “Since Spur stood aside from Oceanside’s goal of bringing Messalina to justice, I have given your city all the help I can give.”

Erick had hoped that Eduard was lying, or misrepresenting the truth, somehow, but that hope was a false hope. Erick asked, “Why? People are dying, now. Two soldiers stationed at my house were compromised by her Dream Worms; they [Defend]ed themselves to death, the second the Flare Couatl showed. The situation on the ground has changed, and Spur must now fully commit against Messalina.” Erick added, “I know you have the power to help. Please do so.”

The Headmaster turned his amber gaze toward the windows, briefly. He turned back to Erick, saying, “I have helped. My people gave warning, and Silverite chose to get in bed with the Life Binder instead of cutting off her head. I cannot work with Silverite any more than I already do. So, since Silverite still exists as the power in Spur, the Spur that spurned me still exists, and thus there is no option for me to help.”

Erick went silent.

Jane groaned a little.

The Headmaster frowned as he turned his gaze from Erick, to at the metal rune over Jane’s head. He stared at the rune. He said, “That rune is misaligned.” He looked to the air.

A quick knock came at door. The Mind Mage doctor, Alibeth, opened the door, saying, “Hello. Headmaster. Everyone.” She walked past Kiri and Poi, headed straight for Jane’s bed, saying, “So this rune is misaligned, I hear?”

The Headmaster said, “Not badly, but bad enough.” He looked to the rune. It shifted under his gaze, ever so slightly, barely at all. “It must have happened when she was thrashing around.”

Alibeth looked mollified, with her eyes down and holding a tiny bottle of glowing white oil, saying, “Terribly sorry,” half to Jane, but maybe half toward the Headmaster, too. She reached over Jane’s head, to above the rune—

Jane groaned, her eyes fluttering open, “Wha—”

Alibeth placed one hand on the rune as she upended the vial of white oil into a hole in the top of the headboard. Oil trickled into a reservoir inside the wood. Alibeth’s hand flickered white and the rune flickered back to life. White light glowed from the dark metal, for a brief moment. When the light died down, Jane was finally sleeping again. Really sleeping, this time. She breathed easy. Her eyes were closed for the first time.

Erick sighed out. He smiled, saying, “Thank you, Alibeth.”

Alibeth nodded fast, then watched the Headmaster. He nodded to her. She raced out of the room.

Erick said, “Thank you, Headmaster.”

The Headmaster said, “Helping people is what we do, here, but when people spurn my help I cannot help them later. I have rules. I follow these rules so that people don’t begin to think I am some unstable creature of chaos.”

A long moment passed in silence.

“Okay.” Erick said, not really understanding. But he wasn’t an immortal being, forced to watch the world change around him as he struggled to stay the same. Maybe that was the Headmaster’s deal? Maybe Erick was misunderstanding him; but that didn’t matter right now. Erick asked, “What if I offered something else?”

“Then I certainly would not be having this conversation here.” The Headmaster looked to Jane, saying, “And I am already providing you with a service unlike any other on Veird.”

Erick steeled himself. He said, “Which is why I am prepared to offer you something very large. It will be a lecture similar to the previous one, but much, much more detailed. And different.”

The Headmaster paused, gently looking down at Jane.

Erick waited. The line had been set. All he could do was hope it was enough to get a nibble.

The Headmaster turned to Erick, saying, “I am open to this sort of transaction.”

First hurdle passed! Good gods, maybe this was going to work after all!

The Headmaster continued, “I will meet you in the auditorium where you gave your previous lecture in two and a half hours. There is a class up there right now, but they will be gone after that. We will discuss whatever you want to discuss, and then I will decide how much help your information buys you.”

Erick barely contained his joy, as he said, “I already promised Kiri she could watch, if that’s okay with you.”

The Headmaster gave a tiny grin. He said, “Then I will also invite one other person.” He asked, “What is the nature of your trade? So that I might prepare a suitable second set of eyes and ears.”

Erick laid it out there, “The nature of light.”

Kiri winced. Poi looked away.

Erick glanced at both of them, uncertain of what that was all about, but he quickly refocused on the Headmaster. And now that he was looking at the Headmaster...

The Headmaster frowned a little. He said, “I might have to goad you into something larger, but we’ll see. I’ll be in the auditorium at the appropriate time, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick saw right through that bluff. The Headmaster was truly, very interested, but he had to save face. Right? Erick just hoped that he wouldn’t try to save face like this when the discussion turned to electromagnetism and waves. Erick would have never tried to talk about any of those things before now, before he had weeks of learning under his belt, and before he had a chance to really remember what he knew about the subject. For he had remembered a lot more about his daughter’s homework and what he had done to prepare for substituting as a science teacher, for the few times he had stepped in for a friend. There were videos and worksheets and way too much math, which he was never good at at all, but he certainly remembered all of the diagrams and colorful dioramas and picturesque examples of particles in motion.

Well... most of all of that.

... enough to matter, anyway!

Erick said, “I think you’ll be surprised.”

“... Maybe.” The Headmaster took one final look at sleeping Jane, then said, “See you soon. I hope you do not disappoint.” He vanished in a blip of gold light.

Poi instantly said, “The secret of blacklights will not convince him to come to Spur’s aid.”

Kiri added, “He’s a Light Mage, Erick. He already knows all there is to know about light!” She turned to Poi, “What’s a blacklight?”

Poi did not answer her; he just stared at Erick.

Teressa kept quiet, but she frowned, alongside the other two.

Erick felt suddenly and increasingly unsure about everything.

Erick asked, “Was he being serious about me needing to offer something larger? I thought that was just him saving face.” Erick added, “And yes. He’s a Light Mage. I know that. But that doesn’t mean he knows everything there is to know. I’m a Particle mage— Okay. Okay. I can already see your objections, Kiri. He’s been at this for a very long time and I have not.”

Kiri said, “At least since the Sundering and the start of the Script.”

Poi continued to frown at Erick.

Erick looked to the sapphire man, saying, “Not you, too?”

Poi ended his frown. He said, “I have to keep relearning that I shouldn’t doubt you, but every time it’s still hard.”

Erick blurted, “There’s four fundamental forces in the universe, and light is a part of one of them. I don’t think you two understand just how big that really is, and how disastrously wrong they teach the subject here.” He added, “Professor Stomp, bless her soul, is just so damn wrong about light— It’s incredible just how wrongly it’s taught.” He corrected himself, “Though for detecting invisible people, maybe there’s something there. I’m not sure.”

Kiri asked, “Really?” She scrunched her face, sarcastically adding, “You’re not sure, huh?”

Erick whispered to himself, “Oh my gods.”

- - - -

Erick stepped down the white stairs of an amphitheater. Up above, the sky was black, with white stars here and there. The three moons hung in the sky—

Erick paused. None of this felt real.

Something had shifted in Reality. Erick tried to access the Script, to bring up a blue box, any box at all. His Status came up, and all the numbers were correct. But the boxes came up slow, like there was a lag in the system. Erick tucked away the boxes, then looked around.

“What is this?” Erick said, “I was just talking to Kiri and Poi.”

“And now you are talking to me.”

Erick turned.

- - - -

Getting into the classroom was easy; Krigea, the teal, ‘only’ two meter tall orcol who worked with the Headmaster, was waiting for them when they arrived. She let them in, and then took her place beside the door, on the outside of the room.

The amphitheater at the top of Central tower was the same as Erick remembered; cream-colored stone that sparkled in tiny ways here and there, with two staircases into the student seating area and a large stage and podium for the speaker. The roof was a spectacle of glass, while the sky overhead was dark. Sunset had come and gone while Erick prepared for his lecture and accompanying experimental evidence. Stars glinted in the dark sky.

As Erick stepped down into the room, down the stairs, toward the stage, he realized he missed dinner. He turned to Kiri, also walking down the stairs with him, and said, “We missed dinner. Are you hungry? We should all get something good to eat after this.”

Kiri whisper-shouted, “How can you possibly think of food right now?”

Erick stepped down into the separating space between the student seating and the stage. Right now, it was only him, Kiri, and Poi, in the room. Poi stayed up in the back of the room; casually out of the way, like usual. Glancing up at the sapphire man, Erick sometimes wondered if Poi was bored with his position, but then he always noticed the lines of intent radiating from the man’s head, and he realized that Poi was likely never bored.

Erick asked Kiri, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually. Sure.” Kiri said, “But... Like... Some of those things you said...” She quickly added, “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Erick said, “Kiri. It’s going to be okay.”

Ophiel, clinging to Erick’s shoulder and staring down at Kiri, twittered in harps and flutes, as though agreeing with Erick.

Kiri eyed Ophiel. “... Sure.”

Erick stepped up onto the stage and began conjuring the tables and equipment he would need. Kiri stepped up behind him and began conjuring the blackboards; making sure that what Erick had written was put up properly.

They were mostly through the setup when the rest of the party arrived.

A gold blip in the student seating resolved into The Headmaster, looking as regal as ever in his gold and cream emperor’s clothes.

Beside him, the air blipped red. Ryul, the harpy archmage, appeared. He wore bright gold jewelry around his barely clothed, red-feathered body. He smiled to Erick, as he said, “Hello again!”

Erick smiled back, saying, “Hello. I wondered who he would bring.”

Ryul said, “You have yet to collect on your first bargain of trade, Archmage Flatt, but now I understand I am to be even further in your debt.”

The Headmaster said, “He is a jokester. There will be no official bargains of trade today. This is a transaction. Knowledge of light, for assistance in tracking down and eliminating Messalina, the Life Binder.”

The Headmaster spoke with a partial disdain in his voice, which Erick was sure was intentional. Either he was being purposefully obtuse, to hide his interest, or he genuinely believed that Erick had no real knowledge about light. The Headmaster was a Light Mage, after all. This was his thing. He should know everything there was to know... Or at least that’s the air he was giving off.

Erick countered with, “When we’re through with this lecture, you might not think it such a small thing, sir. This is not just about the blacklights in my dungeon”

The Headmaster’s frown deepened, as he said, “We shall see.”

Erick nodded. He put his hands to the side of the professor’s podium, and began with, “This is a very, very complicated topic, for light is a fundamental force in this universe, so we will get off topic.” He added, “There are four fundamental forces, just so you know. Or at least that’s how many there were before I fell to Veird. After some initial testing, the experiments that I remembered produced exactly what I expected them to produce, so wherever we are, it might be my universe, or it might be someone else’s. I don’t know. Whatever the case, I am reasonably sure that light works on Veird like how it worked back home.” He said, “This discussion is going to get very, very confusing. Take what I say with a lot of skepticism, for I have remembered a lot, but not all of it. Understand that there are experiments that you can do to test this all out on your own. I will be explaining these experiments to you, in this lecture. I encourage you to actually run the tests yourself. Maybe even do a double-blind study. But that’s for later.” He said, “Whatever the case, this is how I am able to make artifact level Stat items and the Light Slime dungeon, so bear all that in mind as I begin this talk.”

During Erick’s speech, the Headmaster lost his frown. Ryul laughed, once, then sat down. The red harpy pulled a shoulder bag around his body, and pulled out papers and pens. A few [Scry] orbs appeared here and there as Erick spoke, but as soon as Erick said ‘four fundamental forces’, the Headmaster smashed those [Scry] orbs to smithereens, and cast a wide ranged [Ward] across the room, turning the view of the night sky above into a dark, murky vista. Erick was sure that if anyone was looking in from up there, all they could see were blobs.

The Headmaster listened to Erick, until he finished his introduction. Then, he asked, “Are particles not a fundamental part of the universe?”

Erick instantly said, “No. They are not. They are—”

The Headmaster looked to Erick’s left, to behind him to Kiri. “Your apprentice does not look so good.”

Erick turned around. Kiri was barely holding it together. She was pointedly not looking at the Headmaster, or at Erick, or at anything at all. Her eyes were open; possibly too open.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Erick asked, “Kiri?”

Kiri slowly turned toward Erick. Her greenscaled face was the color of pale seafoam.

Without warning, her eyes rolled into the back of her head as her knees buckled.

Erick caught her with a rapidly deployed Handy Aura, muttering, “Shit. Shit,” as he conjured a bed nearby, off of the podium, and placed her on the soft mattress. “Dammit.” He dismissed his Handy Aura out from underneath Kiri.

The Headmaster was suddenly beside the young girl, beside her bed. Poi was walking down the stairs, rapidly closing the distance between him and Kiri, while Ryul held back, frowning slightly; concerned, but with his eyes glancing back to the diagrams and writings on the blackboards on the stage.

Erick focused on Kiri. She was breathing shallow, but she was still breathing.

The Headmaster flicked a small vial of powder into his one hand, then popped the top with a thumb, before sticking the small vial under Kiri’s nose.

Kiri’s eyes slammed open. She instantly saw the Headmaster and Erick, both standing over her, Erick on the professor’s stage, and the Headmaster on the ground beside her bed, as Poi walked up to also stand nearby. She winced. She looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She whispered, “Fuck.”

The Headmaster looked from Kiri to Erick, then back to Kiri, “Tell me. Did Erick ask you to assist him in creating his lecture?”

Kiri could not bear to look at the Headmaster, as she answered, “Yes.”

“And your feelings on that?”

“... unknowable.” Kiri rapidly added, “Sorry. It’s...”

Erick breathed in relief. Kiri was okay. Now as for the rest of this conversation? Erick had no idea.

“No need to be sorry.” The Headmaster hummed. He stepped away from Kiri, then looked up to Erick, saying, “That you have shared the secret of your artifact Stat items and the nature of your light slime producing dungeon with your apprentice, and you were about to share it with Ryul, your guardsman, and I, makes me think you need... A great deal more archmage training. I bear some of the blame for this malformed lecture. We are in the midst of a new era of magic, and I had forgotten this.” He said, “This discussion will still happen, but it will not happen tonight, and it will happen in a more secure location.”

Erick felt a lot of ways about what the Headmaster was saying, but the words that came out of his mouth first, were, “What about Messalina and all the parasites she’s spreading?”

“Yes...” The Headmaster paused. He said, “I suppose I must send some Elites to Spur.” The Headmaster said, “The three already on location seem to have been compromised by the Life Binder. I expected them to do better.”

Erick said, “I expected her to find the people who killed her village and then go away.”

The Headmaster said, as though it was no big deal, “There is no way she has not found her targets.”

Erick said, “What!” Erick stepped down into the area separating the student space from the professor’s podium, to stand on the same floor as the Headmaster and Kiri. He asked, “How?!”

Poi, who had taken a step back, frowned. Kiri just winced, still laying on the bed Erick had conjured. Color was slowly returning to her face, a reddish green; she was either embarrassed or angry, Erick couldn’t tell. Probably both.

“Messalina is a pestilence with parasites everywhere, is how!” Anger flashed across the Headmaster’s face. His glowing gold eyes turned darker as he calmed himself. He said, “She is a self-indulgent hedonist. A being who had the power to do so much good, and who chose to do evil. She murdered seven of my arcanaeums—” He blinked long. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to perfect amber; back to normal. He said, “She killed five thousand of my students and tortured them into new bodies, three hundred years ago. I will never forgive her for that. She will die for leaving the sanctuary of her self-imposed exile.” He spoke with authority, saying, “I had hoped that Spur would immediately join me in my crusade against that necromancer, but, like always, it takes a personal danger for you mortals to understand that ancient evils will never stop being evil.” He concluded, “Oceanside will lead the charge against Messalina. You will remain here, and remain uncorrupted by her efforts.”

Erick said, “Thank you for helping, but I won’t stand aside when I can help, too.”

Half incredulous, the Headmaster asked, “Do you not see that you are being corrupted by Silverite, too?” The Headmaster spat, “Spur is a nest of shadows! Just as they choose to profit from Messalina’s wrath they are choosing to profit from endless war against the dark instead of ending the threat of Ar’kendrithyst, once and for all!”

Erick spat right back, “Then let’s kill all the Shades too while you’re in the neighborhood!”

A pause seemed to stretch through the turbulent mana of the room.

The Headmaster opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He paused. He said, “There is no way Silverite approves of this. Nor Kal’Duresh, or Frontier. They all profit from Ar’Kendrithyst. Every society on Glaquin chooses to live with that dark city, for it makes them stronger. It gets them levels in exchange for death and danger.”

“I’m working on all of that.” Erick said, “But I won’t move unless all my ducks are in a row. Just like you, I suppose.”

The Headmaster asked, “Did you come to Veird to kill Melemizargo?”

The mana in the room had swirled roughshod this way and that, as voices rose and fell and emotions raged, but at the mention of the Dark God’s name, the mana went still. Everyone noticed. Ryul glanced around. Kiri paled, again. Poi seemed to freeze in place.

But Erick and the Headmaster just stared at each other.

Erick did not answer the question, because he did not know. But he did know something. Erick said, “He kills wrought all the time, doesn’t he? His goals don't matter, if his way of accomplishing them is to murder innocents. Besides, I’m pretty sure that the universe you’re in right now is larger than your previous one. It’s just harder to get around, and it’s going to take a lot more than magic to do so.”

Several strange emotions passed across the Headmaster’s face. Disbelief, for sure, but also pity, anger, and others. Erick was pretty good at guessing emotions, and he was usually correct, but whatever the Headmaster was thinking was too deep for Erick to guess.

Erick continued, “And his goal of returning Veird to the Old Cosmology is just weird. Either your old universe still exists, or it doesn’t. What’s he trying to do? Return to a void?”

The Headmaster said, “He is insane. But I am glad to see you are not. I would still urge you to remain here, while my Elites take care of this infestation in Spur.”

“I cannot do that.”

The Headmaster frowned. He said, “Fine.” He looked to Kiri, who was now sitting on the edge of her bed. He said, “Since you have taught enough of this new magic to another to give her a faint, then if you get yourself killed, at least your magic might live on.”

Kiri’s eyes went wide as she stared at the ground, away from the Headmaster.

The Headmaster said, “You are welcome to come back to Oceanside whenever you wish. I am taking your light dungeon and expanding on the location. Easy access to light essences will make killing Ar’Kendrithyst much easier.”

“I will help with that, too,” Erick said, feeling the flow of the conversation finally turn his direction. There had been some sort of hiccup with actually dispersing his half-knowledge of light and electromagnetism, but now it felt like this was what the Headmaster was truly after; at least for now. “I might even take a light slime form and work on [Lightwalk], myself.”

“Then you will expand the dungeon to ten times the size, but it will remain under my control. You will be forbidden from creating a second light slime dungeon for a period of ten years.”

“Then I fully expect you to take care of it while I’m not present, but I, and any who I designate, will have access to the location whenever I need or want, and you will also provide locations for other experimental dungeons. I will also be provided with fifty percent of any revenue produced by any of my dungeons.”

“Twenty percent, and as long as you do not bring danger to Oceanside, I will agree to these terms.”

“Thirty, and experiments bring inherent danger, but I will strive to be responsible.”

“Twenty five, and I want an initial light dungeon created in five days or however long it takes you, before you go back to Spur and get yourself killed by a targeted parasite. Krigea or Apell Calloway will assist you in deciding a new location. In the meantime, my Elites will journey to the cities of the Crystal Forest to begin the process of de-worming the populace and bringing Messalina to justice.” He added, “But I say all this with one major caveat: I cannot promise to help those who are unwilling to accept my help.”

Erick wasn’t happy about not going right back to Spur, but he said, “Agreed.”