Chapter 104, 1/2

Chapter 104, 1/2

Lemon cookies scented the air with fruity sugar and a hint of sour, while coftea provided a pleasant dichotomy of bitter to the senses. Archmage Syllea had flavored her coftea with way too much milk, according to Erick, but after his initial suggestion to only put a bit of milk in the tea, and her turning her brown drink to the color of pale wood, he left off his suggestions, and paid more attention to the lesson unfolding in front of him. Syllea’s voice had gone from simple professional pleasantness, to happy, to awe, as she spoke of Mana Altering. The joy in her voice had become infectious.

Erick was almost as lost as he was interested. Thankfully, he had gotten his mental feet under him, and was beginning to keep up with her words. He would need to experiment a lot with Mana Altering and aura control on his own in order duplicate the effects Syllea wanted to show him, but he would get a taste of what was to come, right now.

Syllea said, “This first one is [Illusion Infusion]. It will make your Light-aspect magic act at unknown angles.” She held her hand up, and Erick felt a small weight on his shoulder; with Meditation’s ability to see intent imposed on the mana, Erick recognized a spell similar to his own [Flight of a Thousand Hands] touching him. She asked, “Ready?”

“This won’t affect my [Familiar]’s imbued magic, will it?”

“It should not affect your [Familiar]s, but tell me if it does.”

“Then I am ready.” Erick said, grinning at nothing in particular, happy to get back to exploring magic for at least a while.

“You’re going to want to try some small spell. Very small. Not [Greater Lightwalk]. Not at first.” Syllea pulsed with clear magic; Intent flowed down the connection from her to Erick.

[Illusion Infusion] took hold, flushing through his body like a distant roll of thunder, felt everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Erick gazed through the Ophiel still at Candlepoint, and saw no change at all to their [Greater Lightwalk] forms. They were casting those spells themselves, and keeping their own mana high by floating back to [Prismatic Ward]s to regenerate when they got below half, so that made sense. In fact, almost all of Erick’s magic was imbued into Ophiel, and since he never fully dismissed the [Familiar], except for that one time that he had been Mind Controlled by Messalina, they still had all of his magic inside of them. He came back to himself, and lightly touched on the mana inside of him. It felt different, but almost exactly the same.

Syllea waited, her bright eyes watching him.

Erick, for his part, felt very little change at all, after the spell settled down. He asked, “I just realized, your spell doesn’t have a duration.”

“It’s twenty thousand total mana, 5100 converted mana, or dismissal. The duration varies depending on how you stress the buff. Casting spells and using the buff is easier on your body than dismissal. If you dismiss it, then these buffs of mine will act like normal buffs when they expire. It won’t be fatal, but you’ll feel like you want to die.” Syllea ignored the heavy caveat she just dumped on Erick, saying, “But that doesn’t matter. Try something! Mana Altering is great! You can get some really strange magics, though, so try something inconsequential, at first.”

Erick glanced out his window. Night had fallen, and the moons were on their way to slivers, so it was rather dark, but he could still see his garden in the light spilling out from the large windows of the room. He asked, “How about [Tree of Light]?”

“Ohh! A fine choice.” Syllea smiled wide. “This is a very interesting interaction.” She glanced to the window with Erick, asking, “Maybe not near the other trees, though.”

“I can make that happen.” He stood up. “Shall we go to the back yard? We can stand on the back porch; no need to venture into the night, or outside of the [Prismatic Ward].”

Syllea stood, saying, “Let’s.”

There had not been a back porch in Erick’s original house plan, but after the Myriad Citrus came down and destroyed the whole back yard, Erick rebuilt it better than it had been before. In addition to evening out the experimental farm, and gathering up his compost bins and sorting them out, there was now a porch. It was not a large porch and it did not have an awning, but it served a function that had been missing. Namely, the function of having a porch.

Erick led the way into the night, but not too far, while Syllea, Bayth, and Poi followed. Teressa stayed just inside the house, for the porch wasn’t large enough to support three orcols. The lighting wasn’t that adequate, either. So Erick reached up and cast a lightward—

Syllea giggled, as the lightward came out wrong. For a brief moment, Erick thought back to the ones he had created when he was first experimenting with lightwards, almost a year ago. Instead of a spotlight, a ball of glowing fog spilled misty white light onto the ground, like a flood released, to spread out across the experimental garden. Light wisped into the night air, and was not like a fog at all, except on the edges.

He said, “I was not expecting that.” He stared at the land, filled with liquid, the night above, and the swirling mists between the two zones. “It’s like the surface of a lake; half underwater, except it’s clear light.” He looked to his feet. “My shadow is... odd.”

At his feet, his shadow was a splashed out bit of something darker, under the waves of light that came up to his waist. He lifted a foot, and the shadows came with it. He set his foot back down, and the shadows spread out again.

Syllea said, “[Illusion Infusion] makes all plain lightwards act different. Yours appears to act like a fog. Mine acts like a light with no source.”

“What about special lightwards?” Erick asked, thinking of a spell he almost used in his light slime dungeon.

Syllea paused in thought, then said, “Let’s do this one, first. [Tree of Light] has a rather special reaction with [Illusion Infusion].”

Mana Altering sounded more interesting with each new bit of information. With a thought, Erick directed the Ophiel on his shoulder to blip over to the garden. With another blip, the night air in front of Erick and Syllea flashed white and shadow, revealing a seven meter tall lemon tree in the center of the experimental garden.

Syllea said, “Ah. Uh. No. We need a sapling, or a new growth entirely.”

“It makes a difference?”

“Yes.” Syllea said, “A great deal. The reaction is not as great if the tree doesn’t grow with the spell active. It still works, but... It’s not the same at all.” She explained, “Trees grown under [Tree of Light] and its variants display a large affinity for the spell later in life, to the point where they could almost be described as magical plants. Trees buffed with [Tree of Light], later in life, are not capable of fully utilizing the effects of the spell.”

“... I made a myriad citrus tree with seven types of fruit, using [Tree of Light] from seven seeds. Seven trees became one tree.” Erick asked, “Is that a problem?”

“... Maybe not. Did you try to plant the seeds from the tree? Were they viable?”

“Yes. Three new trees, each with the same qualities as the original.”

“Hmmmm. Have they hurt anyone?”

Erick readily came to the defense of his creation. “Quite the opposite. They give fruits freely to people, though they do strike back when someone strikes them. The fruits are good, but I haven’t had one myself.”

Syllea scrunched her face. She said, “You made a magic plant, but it’ll probably be fine. You won’t know the outcome for years, but if they start hurting people, you will have to kill them. Since you made them with [Tree of Light], they won’t show their full power under normal [Grow] conditions.” She shooed her hand toward the lemon tree, growing in the garden in front of them. “Let’s see some Illusion!”

Fair enough; Erick had already suspected most of what Syllea said, and had resolved to do much of that.

Erick grabbed a lemon from the tree, and blipped the tree back to the normal garden; like it had never left that growing location. His Handy Aura made short work of retrieving the seeds from the citrus. Erick looked to Poi, and Poi reached up and set a [Weather Ward] across the group, while Erick conjured platinum rain from the sky. With his Handy Aura planting a lemon seed, in the center of the field, he cast [Tree of Light], while glowing rain descended from the flashing dark above.

The growing seed became a tree over the course of one minute, but it did not glow neon, like when Erick normally cast [Tree of Light]. It grew, and grew. The trunk thickened, turning from green to brown, as branches spread. Lemons popped out of brown branches. The tree looked like an entirely normal lemon tree, the whole time it stretched up, into the air. When it had reached a good seven meter height, it formed a perfect version of itself, with even growth on all sides and a perfectly straight trunk. Growth stopped, but Erick knew the spell was still active.

Erick tried to figure out what he was looking at, but he saw no differences between this tree and a normal lemon tree; besides the perfect symmetry and growth.

Erick asked, “What’s supposed to change?”

Syllea had smiled the whole time the tree grew. She kept smiling, as she said, “Hit it with an attack spell. A small one.”

Erick did as he was told, throwing a [Force Bolt] at the center trunk—

The bolt of white mana curved in the air, flowing through the body of the tree, to land in the soil beyond. The tree remained, untouched, even though [Force Bolt] had directly struck the trunk.

Erick hummed. The whole tree was an illusion, wasn’t it? Or was there something else going on?

Syllea smirked, offering. “Try something stronger.”

Erick conjured a [Flying Striker]; a two meter long sword, thin as a blade of grass, but strong as inflexible will. The sword flew at the tree trunk, horizontal with a great sweeping [Strike]—

And whiffed.

Syllea giggled. Erick smiled, both because of the unexpected magic, and because of Syllea’s uncomplicated happiness at seeing magic in action. Erick felt the same way. This was an interesting problem! What was going on here, exactly?

His next experiment was a simple poke with the tip of the sword. He scratched the bark, this time, but when he applied more pressure, the tree simply turned to illusions, and the sword slipped through. So weak actions made it through the ‘[Tree of Illusion]’ buff, but stronger actions did not? Erick tried a few more testing pokes, and his intuition proved true. And then he just went for it, with great, sweeping [Strike]s, flying the weapon through the canopy. The canopy was fake. The sword slipped through like it was touching air, or maybe thick light. But then suddenly, the sword caught the center, slicing the tree in half.

While a couple tons of greenery slowly left its support structure, the severed trunk flickered with light and shadows, like a sparking electrical cable. The illusory magic died, completely. The canopy fell to the ground with a great whooshing, crunching sound.

“So what was that, exactly?” Erick asked, looking at the blue box for [Tree of Light]. “The blue spell box didn’t change, either.”

Syllea said, “Spells affected by Mana Altering in this way will not change their Box Display. The only way to know their full effects is to experiment with them to see what the new effects are. In this case, I’ve already done all of that experimentation. What [Tree of Light] does, is enable the tree to activate itself as an illusion, in order to avoid danger. If you were to attack it with Light or Shadow, you would be doing half damage, but it would not be able to avoid your [Strike]s.” She added, “[Tree of Illusions] is incredibly difficult to get on its own, but with Mana Altering it’s easy to achieve this magic. This is a great spell for protecting Arbors from attack, though you never want to create an Arbor with this spell, since it will make that Arbor able to avoid most attacks.” She said, “Don’t make a magic plant with Illusion magic.”

“Seems prudent.” Erick said, “I’m actually thinking about making a tree [Familiar] but I’m hoping it won’t become an arbor for a long time. I’d like to talk to you about that, too, at some later date.”

“You are?” Syllea looked down at Erick. “That’s not a good idea. Magic plants made with [Tree of Light] are one thing, but tree [Familiar]s turn real faster than most.” She looked to Ophiel on Erick’s shoulder. “And you already have a [Familiar]?”

Ophiel trilled in violins.

Erick patted the little guy, saying, “He’s great. But I need some more stable way to defend locations, and provide rains.” He was also feeling the pinch of 10 maximum Ophiel, but he didn’t mention that; instead, he said, “If the eventual plan is to push back the mimics, then I’m going to need some way to provide for green spaces around the Crystal Forest.” He added, “Anyway: Particle Magic is still 40ish days from becoming a part of the Open Script. I’m not going to make a tree [Familiar] until I can use [Call Lightning], or maybe even [Gate].”

Syllea seemed to reevaluate her earlier statement, looking pensive for a moment. She said, “If you keep your tree [Familiar] to tier 2, it might take 50 years to turn real. That should be fine.”

“I calculated out 100 years?” Erick said, somewhat defensive. “I used the Compendium of Summons.”

“Ehhh.” Syllea frowned a little. “Your goal is a [Familiar] spell that is uncapped, correct? No limit of 3, or 10?”

“Ideally.”

“... We can talk more about that, later.” She gestured to the experimental garden, and its single, dead occupant, saying, “But: Back to Illusion. The general theme you should notice is that defensive Illusion is either not where it appears to be, or is incapable of being struck by physical means, while offensive Illusions will strike from unknown angles.”

Erick asked, “What about this?” He brought out the box for [Kaleidoscopic Radiance]. “How would that work as an Illusion?”

Kaleidoscopic Radiance, instant, medium range, permanent, 500 mana

A medium-sized lightward of evershifting brilliance supports the growth of Light Essence creatures.

Syllea read the box, and almost said something, but she stopped. She read the box again, narrowing her eyes. She asked, “Permanent? I mean... It’s obviously a lightward. A specialty lightward, and those can be made permanent. But it has an effect... and...” She narrowed her eyes, curiously, asking, “You made an active spell out of a plain lightward?” She rapidly added, “Obviously not ‘plain’.”

“I thought the ‘support Light Essence creatures’ was the impressive part?”

Syllea shook her head, saying, “That’s just a rare variation on Rift magics not many people are capable of achieving.” She asked, “Did you put one of these up in your light slime dungeon?”

“No.” Erick said, “I got this while crafting the dungeon, with very complicated lightwards. The Headmaster did not want a [Kaleidoscopic Radiance] on his property.” As he said the words, he remembered that the Headmaster did not say that, exactly. “Ah. No. He said to put one or two up at the bottom, if I felt like it. But I did not.”

“I hear your dungeon is already producing a lot of slimes, anyway.” Syllea said, “I had thought the Headmaster had filled the place with Light Rifts, to speed up the process. But I guess not?” She said, “That’s what you can do with magic like this, when you have an under-performing dungeon. You put up rifts or other essence support magics, and more slimes will pop out.” She said, “How’d you make it permanent, though?”

Erick explained, “I’ve been working on permanent magic for a while. I’ve already got my artifact rings, and I’m working on figuring out the Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove variations, but the goal is permanent magics of any of my spells. Another of my long term goals is figuring out a [Renew] Basic Spell, or whatever tier it has to be, but something low. Something anyone could cast on an ongoing spell, to [Renew] the duration of that spell.”

Syllea looked off into the distance, thoughtful. “That’s a very interesting problem.”

“I was thinking that I would like your assistance on this [Renew] problem, too, if you’d like to have a discussion about permanent lightwards, and such, some other time. Your ability with buffs might be what I’m missing.” He gestured back to his house. “This [Prismatic Ward] is permanent, too.”

Syllea’s eyes had been glinting with an unseen light, as Erick spoke, but at his last words her eyes went wide, as she looked around at the dense air. Syllea said, “I can tell it’s Restful, but... Permanent, too?” She looked at him, asking, “Why do you want to make permanent magics, Erick?”

Erick almost laughed at Syllea’s questioning gaze, but she seemed serious, so Erick spoke candidly, “So I can protect people long after I’m gone, of course.”

Syllea looked away, thoughtful. “Ah.” She said, “We can talk more about permanency, later. With regard to your [Kaleidoscopic Radiance], it reads like a more subdued version of a Rift attuned to supporting Light Essence creatures. The wording on a spell like that usually reads like this.” She popped out a blue box, and handed it to Erick.

Light Rift, instant, medium range, 150 mana

A medium-sized rift of light empowers all Light Essence creatures and magic cast in the area. Lasts 12 hours.

Syllea continued, “My spell uses basic language and says ‘empowers’, but yours uses words like ‘evershifting brilliance’, as well as stating it supports the growth of Light Essence creatures, but no nod to affecting magic in the area. Based upon that, I feel that your spell is likely of a higher refinement than mine. The ‘Radiance’ part of it means that you’ve dipped a short ways toward Fire, for some reason, and that’s rather interesting... The permanency effect is unknown to me —I never try for permanent buffs.” She added, “There’s not much use for your spell outside of dungeons, or raising specialty animals, either.”

Back in the sunroom, Erick took note of how he felt, as the buff faded. Like a buzz in his ears that he didn’t know he was hearing until it was gone, [Illusion Infusion] ended. He breathed deep, centering himself. He said, “Not bad.”

Syllea said, “I’m sure you can learn how to make good buffs, too.” She smiled wide again. “But let’s see where you should start!” With a quick reach into the pockets of her leathers, she pulled out a six sided die. She held it out to Erick, saying, “One side for each main element. All you do is hold it for a moment, then roll it as many times as you want. It’s not an exact magical item; more like a toy, that taints itself with your aura, and activates based on that.”

Erick smiled as he picked up the die that was sized for orcol hands. Three centimeters across, each side was emblazoned with an elemental symbol. Erick hefted the die; it was pretty weighty.

“Cup it in both hands,” Syllea said, “Then roll it.”

Erick did as she suggested. The first time the die ended, it landed on ‘Air’. He kept rolling, puzzling how the die was magically weighted. Syllea smiled, as one element turned up a lot more than the others.

Air. Air. Air. Light. Light. Water. Air. Air. Light. Water. Air. Air.

Erick had done enough. He picked up the die, and did not roll it again, saying, “That’s a lot of Air.”

“I knew it!” Syllea said, “It makes so much sense. The Lightning. The Rain. Obviously, you’re Air, Light, and Water.”

“How does this die work?” Erick asked, “What are you?”

“The die comes up pretty much evenly, for me.” To accentuate her point, she took the die from Erick’s hand, and cupped it in her hands, and began rolling. It turned up every element, before rolling duplicates. There were, maybe, one or two more ‘Water’ and ‘Stone’ for every set of rolls, but Erick wasn’t really counting that closely. She said, “It used to mean something, back in the Old Cosmology. Whatever you rolled determined where you should most focus your talents. It still means something, these days, but not nearly as much as it did.” She picked up the die after it had rolled every Element for the fourth time, saying, “These days, a lot of people just use it as a dating guide.” She put the die away, saying, “It works based on tasting your aura and combining that with the essences infused in each face of the die, and a weight in the center that moves away from what you are.”

“Dating?” Erick smiled, asking, “What element should a lightning and rain guy go for?”

Syllea teased, “Something to keep you grounded, for sure.” She glanced to the dark window, saying, “It’s getting late. Would you like to experiment with [Shadow Conversion]?”

“Yes.”

Syllea reached over and tapped Erick on the shoulder. Magic flashed between them, to soak into Erick’s being. The tiny difference in his sense of the world was noticeable, this time, but still not detrimental. She said, “That’s 9000 mana of conversion. Have fun—” She looked to the door to the room. Bayth stood there, ready to go. Syllea nodded to the massively muscular woman, then said to Erick, “Time to go. Contact me when you wish to continue, or after you’ve had some time to experiment with the odder elements. If you want a book on the subject, I recommend ‘Esoteric Elements’. It’s what got me started on this whole Mana Altering jaunt, twenty years ago. It might be written for children, but there’s a lot of knowledge packed into that tiny book!”

Erick said, “Thank you, Syllea. I’ll look for that book. I hope your people’s trip to Ar’Kendrithyst goes well.”

Syllea lost some of her joy. “I hope so, too.” She stepped to Bayth, adding, “We’ll have to take the quick route, Erick. Sorry for being rude.”

Erick said, “It was great to finally talk to you again.”

Syllea smiled. “It was great to talk to you again, too, but my bargain of trade isn’t nearly discharged yet. See you later.”

Syllea and Bayth flickered with clear light, and vanished from the sunroom.

After a long moment of staring at the space they had occupied, Erick removed both Syllea’s and Bayth’s [Prismatic Ward] permissions. He sat back down, and heated up his cold coftea in a quick [Heat Ward], while he nibbled on one of the two remaining lemon cookies. And he thought.

Poi walked in, asking, “Is everything alright?”

“Not really.” Erick asked, “Are Teressa and Justine asleep?”

“Justine is upstairs on the third floor veranda, tending to her plants. Teressa is walking here right now.”

Teressa walked into the room, but paused. “Uh. I can go away if you want?”

“No. That’s not it... I just... I haven’t had to deal with being called a wizard in a long time and it’s making me wonder where all my people are. If they’re safe.” He asked, “Kiri will be here tomorrow?”

“Yes, sir,” Poi said.

“Good.” Erick said, “I don’t know why I faltered at being called a Wizard. That was strange. We even have a deck of Wizard’s Towers cards over there.” He gestured to a bookshelf in the room, then said, “What’s up with that?”

Teressa looked to the shelves, and offered, “It’s... fun to use such an awful thing in a playful light?”

“Wizards are Moon Reachers, sir—” Poi paused, then said, “I mean. Boogeymen?” He asked Teressa, “When was the last time you heard of one?”

“The only one I grew up hearing stories of was the Wizard of the Fractal Citadel.” Teressa said, “She’s some Reacher in some lost Fractured Citadel, in Quintlan. That’s a four hundred year old story, though.”

Poi looked a little disappointed at Teressa, while the large woman scoffed at him, as if to say, ‘What’?

Poi turned to Erick, saying, “The last known Wizard was the Hullbreaker, in the Letri Ocean—”

“Oh yeah,” mumbled Teressa. “That was twenty years ago.”

Poi continued, “The Headmaster took care of Hullbreaker, though. Sent out a good hundred Elites to kill the Wizard Pirate. Hullbreaker took out half of them, but they got him before a month passed, from Hullbreaker’s ascension to power.”

Teressa joked, “A lot of people thought you were a Wizard—

Poi cleared his throat.

Erick looked away, as Teressa soldiered on, “But anyone who knows how can make a Particle spell.” She said, “You’re not a wizard, and I’ll punch anyone who says otherwise, Boss.”

Erick smiled at the window, and kept his smile as he turned back to Teressa. “Thank you.”

“Of course, Boss!”

Erick changed the subject, “Has Jane spoken to Kiri, and then to you, Poi?”

Poi said, “Not about anything in particular, but they are housing together in Windy Manor. Jane is fine, as far as I know. She is running missions for the Headmaster and getting some personalized instruction in return, but that is the extent of my knowledge.”

“She said she was coming right home, but that’s hasn’t happened yet—” A lightbulb went off, and Erick’s eyes went wide. “I should invent texting!” He frowned. “One more thing to add to the pile.” He asked Teressa and Poi, “So that was Syllea Wyrmrest. What did you think of her?”

Teressa reported, “About as kooky as I’ve heard, but still deeply knowledgeable about many esoteric magics. That die she had you roll was something she invented herself, and has been trying to popularize ever since she graduated from Oceanside, 25 years ago. The mana-sensing dice tradition comes from South Nelboor.” She added, “Aside from all that: Orcols have a long history of buffing magic because we can endure the aftereffects easier than most other races. This was why I started down the path of developing my [Warcry], but Syllea has taken orcol buffs to extremes unheard of until she came along. Not to mention the whole ‘archmage’ thing. Most people focus on the ‘archmage’ thing, though. Big explosions and magical solutions to every problem are all anyone really sees.”

“She was fine.” Poi said, “But I still feel that buffs are dangerous.”

“And they are.” Teressa said, “But small edges here and there can mean a lot in any fight.”

Erick decided, “I’m going to have to learn some buff spells. At least something approaching your [Warcry], Teressa. The percentage buff to damage and defense cannot be overlooked, going forward.”

Teressa said, “You’re going to have to learn from someone else besides me. I know I got it wrong.” She brightened, to say, “But when we visit Treehome, I’m sure you can find a proper instructor, or at least a good book on the subject.”

Erick smiled. “I will do that, then.” He asked, “Now... I think I want to put up a [Kaleidoscopic Radiance], but with this [Shadow Conversion], up at Candlepoint. But that’s just an idea. I’m asking your opinions, first.”

Teressa subtly froze. She said, “Uh.” She went silent.

Poi spoke up, “I cannot give you a suggestion, for I would never trust anything Shadow. That is a blind spot of mine, especially since my people have vetted Justine as being her own person, without any controls on her mind. You should have this conversation with Justine. Alternatively, I can ask Silverite.” He heavily said, “You should ask Silverite, sir.”

Teressa thawed, and said, “I think you should do this for them. Make them come back to themselves, sir. Help them become real again.”

Poi turned toward Teressa, his bluescaled eyebrows furrowing. “Really?”

“Yes.” Teressa stood tall, saying, “If it works that way; if it actually brings them back to themselves, then you have to. But you should be able to know if that spell of yours would actually work how you think it would work. I don’t know much of anything about dungeons, but I do know that working dungeons are highly controlled, with daily changes to keep the slime populations well regulated. I didn’t know they did it with rifts, though.”

“Right.” Erick said, “If what I made is like the spells they use to regulate dungeons, then there should be some information somewhere about how Elemental Essence boosting magic affects essence monsters— shadelings do have shadow essence in them, don’t they? I wasn’t sure, but they have to, right?”

Poi said, “Yes. Enough essence for [Shadow Blend].”

Teressa said, “People hunt shadelings for shadow essence, sometimes. Mostly, they don’t. But it does happen.”

Erick got up, saying, “I’m sure I have those dungeoneering books in my library, somewhere.” He nodded, he said, “Okay... Now I need to talk to Justine.”

Teressa said, “I’ll go get her.”

“Thank you, Teressa.” As she left, Erick said, “Poi, can you ask Silverite her opinion? She’s still awake at this hour, right?”

“Yes. I will ask her.” Poi sent out tendrils of thought.

When eventually Teressa returned to the sunroom, escorting Justine. The incani woman looked to Erick with tired, but strong eyes, saying, “Hello, sir.” And then her facade cracked, and seemed like a woman headed to an executioner’s block. Erick’s heart almost broke as she sat down on the couch across from him. Her facade was back in place.

Erick said, “I know today has been rough, but it’s getting better.” He got right to it, “I just wanted to ask you about spells that boost the growth of shadow essence monsters— I mean. Shadelings.”

Justine blinked her ruby red eyes for a few moments, then said, “How do you mean?”

“I wish to help shadelings come back to themselves, easier.”

“Ah.” Justine said, “These spells do help shadelings come back to themselves, yes, among other powers. The same is true for any spell that boosts the growth of light essence creatures. Though the second option requires a certain ability among the shadeling in question, in order to begin the conversion, and not everyone has that ability.” She said, “A spell that supports the growth of shadow creatures will likely do a lot that I am unaware of. I suggest you ask someone else more knowledgeable on that particular situation. I was never one for dungeon work.”

“What about something that boosts illusion... Well. Not essence. But that boosts illusion creatures?” He said to himself, “I should have asked Syllea if there were such a thing.”

Justine, unsure, said, “I... have no idea. I’ve never done much with buffing, or dungeon work, or illusions, for that matter. The only person I knew who ever did was the Witch, but I never worked with her. I have no idea what the effect would be on light essence or shadow essence existences.”

Teressa tensed slightly at the mention of the Witch. If Erick didn’t know about Teressa’s history with that Shade, he would have missed her reaction.

Erick said, “Okay. Thank you, Justine. And what level are you?” Erick offered, “If you want an escort into the Crystal Forest for an hour tomorrow, I can get you to 32 rather fast. Maybe a bit beyond.”

Justine sat straighter, saying, “I’m level twelve, and have been pushing myself, daily, to the edge of Mana Exhaustion. I would appreciate a boost in the morning, or at your leisure.” She said, “As far as leveling plans are concerned, I will be going for Focus, unlike how I went for Willpower back when we first met.”

Erick smirked; he saw what Justine was doing. “It’s my understanding that most would see a Scion of Focus as an underpowered Mage, but that’s just one of the many cultural things I do not understand.”

Justine just nodded.

“Then it’s decided: we can do some boosting in the morning.” Erick then set a small stone box on the table between them. Ophiel had blipped it in when Teressa went to go get Justine. Erick said, “I should have given you one of these earlier, especially since Koyabez vouches for your sincerity. I think you already know what they are.”

Justine gazed down at the stone box. Water blurred her ruby red eyes. She blinked, as she took the box. As she opened it, and saw the pair of silver rings inside, small tears rolled down her pale skin. She said a shaky, “Thank you.”

“They should make you feel a little safer; I know that’s what they’ve done for me. Each one is plus-25 All Stats— Heh. I’m going to have to stop calling it that.” He said, “If they’re not your size, I can make others.”

Justine shook her head, as she took the rings out and slipped them on her fingers. “These are perfect.” She smiled, sniffled, and laughed, then said, “They feel good, too.” She held up a hand, and smiled at the silver band upon her finger. “No Stat Sickness, just like I heard.”

Erick smiled, to see Justine happy.