Chapter 179, 1/2

Chapter 179, 1/2

Erick watched as Kromolok and Sitnakov departed back across the lake, toward the shore in the far distance. And then he turned to the side and glanced over Tasar. The human-shaped, green-black woman looked a great deal relieved compared to the previous times Erick had seen her. Her newfound serenity had something to do with relief at not having to fight Melemizargo, and maybe some of what the Dark God had said, too.

So Erick asked, “I know why Kromolok is happy, but why are you happy?”

“You solved the Path, Erick.” Tasar’s smile grew a little, as she said, “What you said— The Path is both preparation and test with the goal of allowing the Walker to open up new worlds, and to bring civilization along with them. In retrospect, this is obvious, so it’s obvious why no one has ever gotten this far. You solved it, and even if we can’t find a Wizard to finish out this particular Path, now that we know what the true end goal is— This is massive, Erick.” She pulled back, speaking in less-enthusiastic caveats, “We don’t want to actually proceed until we can solve the Sundering problem, but Kromolok and others will be able to demand answers from—I’m hesitant to call out her name, so I’ll just call her the Letter Killer. Kromolok will ask, and she will have to answer in a satisfactory manner, because Fae Magic demands such.” She paused, then said, “I suppose she could deny us a proper answer, saying we have no proof of her oath breaking, but I’m sure Kromolok will work it out; he always does.”

Her words were hopeful, but their content meant something unsettling had happened.

To be sure, Erick asked, “You really heard everything, then?”

Tasar said, “Long range [Scry]s can do a lot and the prognosticators warned us something was going down when you decided to land atop this root. It should come as no surprise that we can respond fast to danger.”

... Maybe Rozeta was able to cast a wide-scale [Anti Time Stop] spell on her people along with a dozen other spells. She had done as much for Erick during Last Shadow’s Feast, after all. But all that didn’t really matter. Erick was suddenly bone-tired, as if his injuries had caught up to him. He couldn’t put on a stoic face for much longer.

“A lot of things have come as surprises today.” Erick said, “I don’t want to be a hermit, Tasar, but I am starting to see the appeal.”

Tasar nodded. “If you want to go to bed I can watch over you. I will have to be introduced to Yggdrasil, though. I was hoping such an introduction would happen naturally, but... Needs must, and Stratagold demands.” She had spoken her last words like a common saying.

Erick had never heard the saying before, but he could understand where it had come from. He decided to get it over with, and said, “Yggdrasil, this is Tasar. Tasar, this is Yggdrasil.”

Tasar glanced arou—

Yggdrasil’s meter-wide [Scry] eye appeared in the air beside Erick, shimmering and prismatic white. Tasar was startled but she settled quickly, then bowed to the eye. The eye nodded back, as Yggdrasil’s voice carried on the air, “Hello, Tasar.”

“Hello, Yggdrasil.” Tasar said, “I’m going to be staying with you for two days if that is okay.”

Yggdrasil’s eye looked to Erick.

“It’s fine.” Erick stepped into the air, his tattered clothes only holding onto his body because of his lightform, saying, “Let’s all get along then, shall we?”

Tasar looked almost giddy with anticipation as she turned toward Yggdrasil, waiting for Erick to lead the way.

And then Erick led the way.

- - - -

Upon one of the lower branches, beside one of his many, many [Sealed Privacy Ward]s, Erick landed upon Yggdrasil’s white bark. He stuck his hand inside the Privacy and it disappeared up to his wrist, as he explained to Tasar, “They’re each only the size of a small house, but they should be large enough for us to both comfortably exist for a while. I granted you Prismatic permissions.”

“I know this is an imposition, but I promise to be as unobtrusive as I can,” Tasar said, stepping to the edge of the Privacy and sticking her own hand inside. She brightened. “It’s a nice setup.”

Erick stepped into the Privacy and Tasar followed. Furniture appeared, though it had always been there, it just wasn’t visible from the outside; from the outside, all anyone could see was the flat surface of Yggdrasil’s branch.

Erick explained, “This room is the main room, but the actual sleeping area moves around, though I’ll just stay in this location while you’re here.” It was a bit more complicated than that, involving paranoid sweeps through all set Privacys, Yggdrasil periodically moving stuff around on his own, and other assorted nuances that Tasar didn’t need to know about. Erick gestured around, saying, “Kitchen. Library. Dividers to put up to separate the spaces and to make it feel more like a home, instead of open space on Yggdrasil’s arm. Feel free to copy and adjust whatever furniture you need to suit your own needs, or I could make you new things.”

“You don’t have to adjust yourself, Erick, or take care of me.” Tasar said, “I know it is a strong imposition for me to remain near you for the next 48 hours, so I am more than willing to acquiesce to your needs. If you want to move around I am okay with moving around, too.”

Erick shook his head. “No. That’s... No. We can stay in one place for a while.” He added, “Besides that, I was going to make [Fairy House] out of what Kydyr showed me yesterday. That place would be more permanent, but also vastly more secure. But then... She killed him and things happened.”

At the mention of Kydyr, Tasar lost a bit of her mirth. But like a good soldier, she regained her composure, and asked some tactical questions, “Were you planning on copying metals or just using the base spell?”

“... I was going to use a runic web from copied platinum.”

“I advise you not to [Duplicate] any metals. Let me secure some platinum for you through Archmage’s Rest to give you a book trail. You don’t want the golds wondering where you got the metal for a proper runic web. If they know you have [Duplicate] then they simply will not make any trade deals. They hate that spell with a passion.”

Erick was briefly interested in talking about history, and about how [Duplicate] was rampant inside the Geodes, but he let that conversation go. “I suppose the people in charge of the economy would hate that spell.” Erick asked, “How long would it take for a shipment of metals? And wouldn’t you get them from [Duplicate], anyway?”

“We have a strategic reserve of all types of metal that we can give out for certain needs, and at this juncture, a proper defensive house for you, or for any people you invite to Yggdrasil, would count against that reserve.” Tasar said, “And that’s what we tell everyone, but the ‘strategic reserve’ is just code for [Duplicate]; please don’t go sharing that information around, though.”

“Then that works.” Erick glanced around to his ‘house’, his mind going a bit fuzzy with the need to sleep, as he said, “Let me make you a space... Or you can make it yourself? I think I need to... Lay back down— Wait. I already offered. You said you could handle yourself. Yes. I will let you do that, then.” He tugged at his tattered clothes, saying, “And I will make myself some new clothes and maybe eat something, before sleeping.”

Tasar nodded, then moved further into the ‘house’, saying, “I may technically be your keeper for two days, but you can pretend as though I’m not here. If you desire, though, after you’ve had a chance to rest, I’m interested in continuing some spellwork. Aura work? Or any other spellwork you might wish to discuss. If you’re up for it.”

“Yeah. Sure... Later.”

Tasar nodded, then she went to a divider and copied it, before proceeding to [Fabricate] the copy into furniture for her own space. She asked, “Do you mind if I leave a summon on the edge of the Privacy? I can’t mana sense the world outside like this.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Erick moved on to his own part of the house, saying, “Do whatever you need to do.”

Tasar nodded, then summoned a small creature that looked almost like a blackberry; tiny and seemingly made of even smaller black spheres. She set the summon at the edge of the Privacy, where it lodged into the edge of the space and remained. She smiled, as her senses of the outside world likely came back in full.

Erick turned his attentions back to his own predicament.

And since it was foolish to try and ‘hide his dignity’ behind a screen, he stripped right there and put on some fresh night clothes from a dresser. A [Mend] failed to fix his tattered clothes, so Erick dumped them into a bin of recyclables; Melemizargo’s Silenced words must have damaged them rather deeply. He would [Fabricate] them into something new tomorrow.

For now, he went to the kitchen, grabbed a large, meaty, cheesy sandwich out of the cold storage, copied it, put the original back, and began heating up the copy. Soon, it was steaming hot. He sat down at the table and offered to make Tasar a meal, but she politely declined his offer. She was almost all the way through making a nice little room for herself at the edge of the Privacy and she wanted to finish.

Erick stayed up a little while longer reading from the small library he had managed to amass in the Underworld, mostly the books about Wizardry he had gained from the Core. He had already read them once before, but none of it was information he could use yet, anyway. After only ten minutes of reading, Erick felt his full-body lethargy finally reach his mind, though his anger was on the rise. He could ignore the anger for a while. He set the book aside, gave one final thought to how his rage was only going to rise, and then he closed his eyes.

He watched Tasar for a little while longer through his mana sense, but she wasn’t doing anything aside from sitting in her new chair and reading her own book. Hers was a fiction story, number 25 in a series titled ‘The Meandering Mage’, and Tasar was savoring each page. The soft sound of turning pages eventually melded into the background rustle of leaves, far, far overhead, and Erick fell asleep.

- - - -

Erick woke fully rested.

He was also quite pissed off.

And then he breathed out, took a deep breath in, stretched, and some of his anger melted away. Most remained, though. Like a pink haze, rage became a small buzz in the back of his mind as he got up. Tasar had remained in her chair the whole night. She was almost to the end of her novel, so several hours had to have passed, at least. Erick ignored her, for the moment, and turned his mana sense toward the kitchen. His rage grew a little more when he realized that he didn’t want to eat any of the foods in cold storage. It was all shit!

... Ah.

He was angry.

This did not bode well for the remaining 40 hours of this... Whatever this was. This nannying. Babying. Painting Erick as someone who couldn’t be trusted to run his own life in a satisfactory manner. Thinking about Stratagold’s casual disregard of Erick’s competence got Erick’s blood boiling.

And this was just the start of this shit.

Erick had no doubt at all that 48 hours would become 72, would become 100, and then a thousand.

This was untenable. So this problem needed to be solved sooner, rather than later. If Erick left this for later he would surely explode at someone, and who knew what that would lead to. Erick didn’t want to think too deeply of how, exactly, his relationship with Stratagold could sour and then turn to poison...

So Erick stood at the edge of his Privacy, near Tasar. She was currently reading her book, and she seemed to savor the pages, reading at a sedate pace that made Erick clench his teeth as yet another spike of small rage layered on top of all the rest.

He calmly asked her, “What’s a guy gotta do to get some real privacy?”

Tasar jerked away from her book, only now realizing that Erick was looking at her. “Uh. Sorry. I was paying attention. Uh? Real privacy?” She set her book aside and stood, saying, “I apologize, but until Kromolok can pin down the Letter Killer in an agreement that satisfies all involved, then we cannot allow her to visit you, which she certainly would. The fae lost much of their power after the Sundering and with the Script keeping them in line, but deals made by fae are still dangerous to accept, and she can make a deal with anyone, simply by accepting hospitality, or your ‘thanks’. Any number of arcane reasonings is enough to grant her a modicum of power over you, and that would be bad.”

“... Yes. Well. Visiting me isn’t the problem. The problem, I suppose, is that you believe I cannot be trusted to not make deals with strange people.” Erick said, “This feels like a rather baseless assumption and makes it seem like I am some sort of idiot.”

Tasar made a show of listening and nodding, then she maintained the party line, “This is a decision that has come down from the King himself. I would like to honestly report that after these 48 hours are over—”

“40.”

“—That after these 40 hours are over, that there was no contact. That’s all I’m trying to do.” Tasar said, “But that said, we will be working in close proximity until the end of your Path, so I would like to work with you to make this arrangement and all other future arrangements work comfortably. If you bear with it, then I will be sure to leave you alone after these 40 hours.”

“... This whole thing has been very stressful for me and if I don’t get some alone time, and soon, then I will probably explode on someone. I do not want that to happen.”

After a moment, Tasar said, “Okay. I understand.” Tasar said, “I can put a bubble around the [Prismatic Ward] of this space to alert me if anyone should happen to cross into this barrier. It should last against the Amulet of Non-Presence, for it’s a detection spell in ways in which we believe the Amulet cannot defend. It will last 10 minutes, but I will be coming back inside if anyone should happen to touch the barrier. Is ten minutes enough private time?”

Erick’s shoulders tensed as he fought off making his hands into fists. And then he heard ‘ten minutes’. A wave of relief flowed through his body as muscles started to relax. He said, “As long as it’s not some sort of surveillance spell and I can actuallybealone, then that’s fine with me.”

“It is a surveillance spell, but I can shape it to remain on the edge of the Privacy.” Tasar said, “And also across Yggdrasil’s surface, of course. As long as nothing crosses the edge, then I will remain outside.”

Erick felt his anger roar at being treated like a child, or a would-be criminal.

But.

But.

He could do this.

“This place is protected by [Prismatic Ward], anyway.” Erick said, “And this Letter Killer isn’t on my list of allowed people.”

Tasar said, “Even so. She does have that Amulet, and it does make her immune to almost all forms of detection. I’m not 100% on it working, either, but it should. It would work better if I wrapped it through the whole space, but— We’re just trying to look out for you, Erick.”

Erick breathed deep.

Stamp down the anger.

This was fine.

Erick sent Ophiel outside and gently nudged Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye out of the space, as he said, “Sure. Let’s do it. I’m going to lay on the bed. Wrap it through everywhere but the bed space, if you need to do that to feel secure. I’m going to meditate for a little while and I don’t want to be disturbed, orviewed.”

Was this stupid?

Perhaps.

It would be more stupid to let this problem build any higher.

Tasar relaxed a little bit, smiling graciously, saying, “That does make me feel more comfortable. I will do this. It will detect telepathy or [Scry] eyes, and even the connections to Ophiel, but I will allow for those connections.”

Erick nodded.

Tasar cast a shimmering black light throughout the whole Privacy and suddenly Erick’s body began to fluoresce like a wrought under blacklight, but green. Tasar glittered the same, looking like a green glowstick at a midnight rave. The spell layered across Yggdrasil’s glowing bark, and across the air above. Erick noticed short, green prominences that stood out from his body, and with a bit of understanding, he realized those flares of green sparkles connected him to every Ophiel out there. He lifted a foot and watched as green light connected him to Yggdrasil. He moved a bit, testing the space, and the detection spell glittered with green sparks like he was moving through water filled with bioluminescent algae. As he stopped moving, though, the glow began to fade, and all that remained was dark air. His sunform, kept tight and small against his back, still radiated a brilliant green glow, though. Tasar’s glow had already faded almost entirely, leaving her fully black, standing among her shadows.

And then Tasar’s mouth made green sparkles as she once again moved, saying, “It calms down if nothing happens. Anyone moving through the space, at all, will produce an effect that I or anyone else can see. I will leave you to your meditation.” She added, “I have taken the liberty of leaving your small bathroom untouched, as well.”

Ah.

She thought he needed to poop. Okay. That worked.

Tasar nodded, then moved out of the space, regaining her glowstick-look as she moved to the edge of the Privacy, saying, “When you move out of the space I will begin watch. Please purposefully tap the space to let me know. I will respond to the first intrusion, and that includes [Telepathy] intrusions.” With a casual turn, she stepped outside of the Privacy.

Erick was left with a dozen uncomfortable realizations.

He only had ten minutes of ‘free time’ to do what he needed to do, like some convict inside a prison,The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

He rapidly moved to the bed, stepping out of the inky air like a glowing green cloud, to crash onto the mattress and into possible privacy. For a moment, Erick watched the shadowy spell, as the green glitters he left inside gradually began to fade. Nothing else disturbed the shadows, anywhere.

... Time to get this over with!

Erick switched to his Other Form, watching Tasar all the while. She did not blink, or move, or react at all. Erick rapidly activated [Renew], feeding his core while also cycling, trying not to lose himself to the sudden relief that filled his entire soul as mana flooded inward and fixed a thousand tiny degradations. Twenty seconds later Erick had bottomed out on mana, but he had never stopped watching Tasar. She didn’t react at all. Erick continued to cycle for a little while; ten seconds, and then twenty. And that was enough. He switched back to his Normal Form.

More seconds passed in blissful solitude.

And Erick had a thought. Did he want to keep up this specific ruse? To play along with Tasar’s thoughts on what he was actually doing in here? Pooping? If so, then he needed to take the full ten minutes.

Or at least a minute.

Yeah. One minute for the ruse. This was fine. Erick just sat there on his bed, breathing, and feeling good for another ten seconds, and then the minute was over. And then he realized he should actually go to the bathroom, since it was morning, and Tasar had left the path to the bathroom open. So he went to the small bathroom he had set up, did what he needed to do, and [Cleanse]ed away the mess, recasting his normal [Personal Ward] like he would during any normal morning. He also recast [Sealed Privacy Ward] over the space, erasing the latest history of the manasphere throughout the area—

Everything flashed green.

Tasar suddenly shifted into the space; she did not walk in, and she did not appear where she would have been if she had walked in. She appeared by the library’s bookshelves, nearly 5 meters away from where Erick had expected her to appear.

Well that was terrifying, both in the speed of the action and with how quickly Tasar reoriented to adjusted surroundings. For a brief moment she looked ready to kill someone, and then the moment passed; she realized nothing was happening. No need to worry. No need to kill an intruding fae.

It appeared Erick was touchy, yes, but Tasar was also touchy about defending her charge.

Erick just waved, happily saying, “Thanks for the break.”

As the glow in the air faded back to shadows, Tasar rapidly resumed her professional facade. And then she canceled her spell, returning light to the Private space, as she said, “I apologize again for intruding on you. This seemed to work out, though, so if you need to do this again, just let me know.”

Her words were calm and diplomatic, but a few small clues gave away her inner thoughts. The tension in her shoulders. The darting of her eyes to see if anything had moved; she had a good mana sense, but she used her eyes just as much as her other senses. She wondered if he had met with the fae, and then lied about it. Such a suspicious nature would be dangerous going forward.

The first floor was kept small, since the root was only three meters across, with enough of a footprint and securing bars to keep it from tipping over, and enough space to provide arch support for the second floor. The second floor had almost four times the floor space of the first. It was very top-heavy and completely untenable for long-term habitation, but it was good for an experiment. Erick stepped through the first-floor door and Tasar followed. A staircase occupied most of the first floor. Erick walked up and Tasar followed.

All the while, Tasar was wide-eyed and speechless, testing the ground as she walked, flickering through several Sight spells to try and see through the magic. But this was a Fae Spell, and to all senses it looked real, from the inside, anyway; Erick had already checked on that himself.

The space didn’t seem to exist from the outside, at all, which Erick was still wrapping his head around. Now that he had his own [Fairy House] spell, Erick could finally do some proper tests on the space.

The second floor was more impressive than the first, by far. It was a dome of clear crystal, with the staircase coming up from the center and panoramic views all around. Yggdrasil’s green canopy and lightning-like branches held far overhead, while the lake all around them seemed as large as an ocean. More glowing white roots spread out everywhere, arcing above the waters, but to the north-west, Yggdrasil’s trunk dominated the view.

Erick said, “I added in a lot of the Permanency-[Renew] ideas I’ve been working on into this spell, so I can even extend the space with more casts.” He gestured at the roof and spent a thousand mana, translating into about 20,000 mana after Intelligence. The thick crystal dome transformed into an iron-braced viewing room, with a ladder leading up to a widow’s tower at the top. “It’s an expensive spell but it’s modular, so I can make you your own rooms if you want, and I can expand pretty darned far, even without the use of a runic web. I am pretty sure I can even make individual rooms that are invisible to each other until you cross the threshold; either through runework, or nested spells.”

Tasar stared around, stunned and impressed and working to figure out how it was done. “Permanency is something people work for decades to— And it’s modular?” She touched the ladder leading up as if it would break at her touch, but the solid, fake metal remained strong. “How did you— How much mana did you put into this working? How much space do you get per cast? This should be way too expensive to—” She relaxed a fraction as she realized something. “Ah. Intelligence.”

Erick nodded. “Variable spell. One medium-sized space per thousand mana, with every extra thousand mana giving another medium-sized space; a little over a two-meter diameter sphere.” Or, Erick could double the strength in an area, though he hadn’t done much of that yet. Erick said, “One cast at 1000 extra mana was only enough to make the front door and a small closet beyond. It took the equivalent of 130,000 mana to make this small tower and secure it to Yggdrasil so it wouldn’t topple into the lake.”

Tasar was already casting detection spells, sending them outward. “My senses of the outside are blocked by the walls like normal vision, even to [True Sight], and mana sense goes out like normal... Spells coming in from the outside are funky, though— Oh. Look at that.” Ophiel flew through the space, from the outside, passing right through the crystals and iron bars and even Erick’s stretched-out hand like a semi-transparent ball of feathers and eyes. Tasar smiled, saying, “Things from the outside pass right through. This is the good version, Erick. It just needs a runic web to be truly secure.”

“I was thinking of getting breakfast at the embassy before Riivo showed up with the platinum.” Erick asked, “Do we have time?”

“Oh. Sure.” Tasar poked at the crystal window with a rigid finger, saying, “I’d like to help you on your aura control sometime soon, too. Have you run into any problems with that? There’s a platinum slime designated for you if you’re having trouble with aura cleaning and you want to brute force it.” She touched the iron reinforcing bars, saying, “This truly does look like metal. Huh.”

Erick grinned. “I want to do some resiliency tests with this spell before I go back to aura control. Do you have any Fae Magic?”

Tasar stepped into the air, preparing for the space to pop. “Just the one spell. You want to test it?”

“Yes.” Erick stepped a fraction off the floor, saying, “I reinforced the spell with some redundancy through Permanency, but it will likely break. Not sure how much damage it can take.”

Tasar nodded as she held a hand out to stomach height and cast a quick spell.

An orb of glass materialized in her hand and the bracelet on Erick’s forearm evaporated as though it was made of dust in a windstorm. The stone floor of the house only rippled. Erick looked down, expecting something more to happen. Tasar did the same, her eyebrows going up.

“Huh.” Tasar dismissed the glass orb then said, “The reinforcement held, I see, but more likely the shattering effect caught upon your bracelet instead.”

“The effects of the house are technically closer to the casting point of that orb, though.” Erick asked, “Can you conjure outside?”

“Of course.” Tasar focused for a moment, then pointed to the windows, saying, “Right there, and then inside the structure. I’ll go for a few casts.”

Erick watched as a small blackberry floated out of Tasar’s hand, then darted up and out of the [Fairy Stronghold]’s upper exit. The summon rapidly moved to hover outside the window. With a flicker of black-green light, another glass orb materialized outside the window and promptly fell down; lost to the lake waters. And the windows held. Tasar’s eyebrows went up again.

She moved the blackberry to the window, then inside, the construct turning ethereal as it entered the area of the house. Erick smiled. Ophiel did the same thing when he flew through. It very much reminded him of... Almost like looking at an illusion through [True Sight]. Which... Was exactly what it was, but different?

Oh.

Okay.

Oh.

This was big. Erick didn’t know how it was big, but it was. He didn’t notice the similarity until it happened a few times but now that he noticed, he noticed.

Perhaps the fact that other things could enter the space, but they were illusions to anyone already inside the space... Or perhaps it was the idea that Erick had made something more real than reality... Or perhaps—

Erick blinked as another glass orb released from the blackberry and the entire Stronghold fractured like lightning struck the center. Erick’s false Fae Reality crumbled and broke like so much shattering white mana.

And Erick lost his train of thought—

No! Wait!

Fae Magic operated on a different wavelength!

Oh.

Wait.

Wow. Was that it? Just make a different wavelength of reality? Overlap the world with other worlds that no one could actually see? Was there a ‘wavelength’ inside the mana? Did the fae live on a different slice of reality? Oh. Shit. That made a lot... of sense...

Wait.

What the FUCK did the DIMENSIONAL BAN actually DO?

All this time, had the answer to [Gate] been staring him in the face? All he had to do was make a different wavelength of reality through fae magic and then have that different reality operate through different rules to allow for [Gate] to function anywhere mana existed. Was that it? The whole story? Mana had to exist in two different points of space for [Gate] to work through them, because... of course it had to? Mana had to exist in the location one was [Gate]ing to, duh. Yes. Of course it did.

Was all mana in touch with all of itself, all the time?

Was mana just a separate reality, overlaid atop the physical one?

... Okay, that second ‘overlaid’ question was an obvious and emphatic ‘YES’. Duh. Mana was a separate reality that was mostly unaffected by this physical one.

So, thinking back to how ‘all mana was connected to all other mana’... That was probably how Erick and Jane had fallen to Veird. They had touched upon a different slice of reality and gotten sucked up into this larger pool of reality, here on Veird.

Which was likely why [Gate]ing back to Earth would be impossible. Erick would have to first make a [Gate] spell that could target specific spots of mana, and then target that one specific bit of mana back on Earth that had shoved them here to Veird.

... But that one bit of mana would have already passed on, right? Earth certainly had a low amount of mana, for sure.

In this way, the same sort of event had happened to other planars in other parts of the universe, didn’t it? They had encountered a knot or an eddy or a particularly aligned bit of Elemental Fae, or something, and... It was just like what happened to Erick when he stepped on that Teleport Pad in Enduring Forge. He had steppedintothemana when he did that, didn’t he? And then the mana flowed as it normally flowed, to the Core. Mana normally flowed everywhere. But a lot of it flowed back to Veird’s Core.

Holy fuck. No. That didn’t seem right? The order of magnitude of ‘luck’ needed to notdie in such a situation was... Very large, for sure. Erick and Jane had ended up in the Underworld with monster—

With Melemizargo right there.

Was he constantly calling for help from outside? Perhaps? Maybe he was? Was he acting as a separate ‘Core’ for all the planars to fall to? Or was that another magnitude of ‘luck’ that Erick and Jane had succeeded, where many, many others had failed?

Oh, gods, so many sudden questions.

This ‘sliding through the mana’ was real, though. For sure.

Back in the Old Cosmology, in order to [Teleport], one had to ‘pick themselves up in one area and set down in another’, following the flow of mana. That is what Erick had read when he read about the creator of Spatial Magic on Veird, Everlin Etherspray, and how she had first worked that particular magic. The story was likely apocryphal, but the way in which people [Teleport]ed in the Old Cosmology was well documented and true. (One could also work against the flow, as Everlin did, but that was harder to do.)

But when that Spatial Magic got into the Script, it was streamlined.

And yet [Gate] was OldCosmologySpatialMagic, and likely a bit more Fae Magic aligned than all the rest. It was trickier. More devious.

Erick wasn’t sure, but he felt like he was sneaking up on a Truth.

In the process of falling to Veird, Erick and Jane had gone from an area of low mana to the only other place where mana existed in large quantities, Veird. Or, perhaps, they rode the natural direction that probability flowed; from a space with a single mana (or a small amount, for sure), to this planet with a veritable ocean of mana. Or Fae Magic was being True Fae magic, since it was operating outside of the Script’s bounds, and playing some cosmic, improbable trick.

Okay.

Lotta questions. No easy answers, aside from all the answers Erick had just figured out.

To do:

Research the Dimensional Ban; what does it do, exactly. Does that Ban simply prevent [Gate] from punching through to different dimensions, like the one Veird originally came from? And yet, the Dimensional Ban and [Gate] exist in the same Script, at the same time, so then [Gate] must not be Dimensional Magic at all. But how could it be anything else?

Research how probability flows in mana. Does flowing mana actually matter for [Gate]? It probably does, considering how the Twisted Vision inside the Forest of Glaquin constantly sucks mana toward its center, and how Old Cosmology Spatial Magic used to work.

Research how Fae Magic seems to exist on another plane of reality. Research how mana itself is like a different plane of reality. Research how viable it is to create structures in the mana that exist on other wavelengths of reality, if such a thing were even possible.

—All these thoughts took place in one impossibly long single second. And then Erick’s [Fairy Stronghold] finished breaking. As the light show cleared, Erick and Tasar remained in the air over Yggdrasil’s root.

Tasar looked to him, saying, “It’s a good spell, but it needs the solidity of a proper runic web to make it viable for defense.”

Calmly, Erick nodded, as though his entire worldview hadn’t been shattered, yet again. He said, “I can put it in a runic web, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Won’t be a problem to use it out in the field if no one sees me put it up, though, and especially if it’s inside a [Prismatic Ward], which should protect it from people casually walking through.”

“Sort of defeats the purpose of having a hiding spot, though, right? If you can see the magic of the [Prismatic Ward] you’ll know where the house is.”

“I could put the [Prismatic Ward] on the inside. I can nest the systems.”

Tasar nodded. “I suppose so.”

As Erick’s thoughts overflowed with questions and hypotheses without any good answers but that which would come with time, he asked, “Want some breakfast at the embassy before the day truly starts?”

“Sure!” Tasar said, “We should stop by the EIPC rooms and I can grab my mother from my office, for the news of yesterday has certainly sent rippling effects throughout the whole of Stratagold, if not the whole Underworld. We should find out what’s happening there while we can.”

Erick very much noticed Tasar’s use of ‘we’, and she meant it in a good way, as though they were partners. He appreciated that. He said, “We should do all that; yes.”

Tasar smiled brightly.

- - - -

Erick and Tasar managed to make it across the open space in front of the embassy and into the front halls before they could go no further. Crowds gathered faster than any of the nearby guards thought they would as the entire embassy seemed to rush forward to see what Erick had to say for himself. With a team of riot-control wrought surrounding him, keeping the nobility and smartly-dressed commoners back with a small amount of force, Erick felt suddenly lost.

Everyone wanted a piece of him, and though none of their exact needs were exactly the same, all of them were out there for nearly the same reason.

‘How close is [Gate]!’

‘Are you selling property in the cavern!’

‘Are you going to find the Letter Killer!’

‘Did you call out to the Darkness!’

That final yelled question shifted the mood.

And then one person suddenly yelled, “Why you got a kill spell in your heart! What did you do to make Rozeta hate you!”

Erick should have remained at Yggdrasil. He hadn’t been thinking straight for his mind was filled with Fae Magic and implications. If he had been more present then he never would have walked into this mess. He had thought, with the wrought riot team’s quick response, that these people would decide that pressing forward was a bad idea, but...

But these were the mortals living under the auspices of the wrought, and they had much more mortal reactions, full of rightful worry.

Erick suddenly lost his appetite, but while Tasar and the nearby guards singled out the rowdy speaker —an incani who seemed like he personally hated Erick for whatever reason— Erick called out his only real response to the sudden questions from the sudden crowd, “Rozeta and I are working together, and the kill spell is a side effect of the boons she bestowed.”

Tasar suddenly whipped around to stare at Erick. She was not the only one who had the moment crystallize into something unexpected and strangely fantastic. ‘A boon?’ ‘What sort of boon!’ ‘What are your plans for the planet Yoril!’ All sorts of strange questions came at him while the rowdy incani flummoxed for —and rapidly found— another bit of vitriol to shove at Erick. But Erick was hearing none of it. He told Tasar that he was headed back to Yggdrasil while he was already walking that way. The riot-control wrought began pressing back toward the door, holding back the crowd and then parting to let Erick through. They held back the crowd from chasing after him, but Tasar got through.

Tasar rushed to catch up. She was apologizing even before they made it back to Yggdrasil, though it was not her fault and Erick said as much.

Back at Yggdrasil, and after a calming moment just sitting there, Erick almost made himself breakfast. But then Tasar hopped to work, and began fixing him food, which consisted of a copy of the sandwich which Erick was going to get himself and a strong tea. He thanked her while she spoke a lot about security, seemingly fixated on making him comfortable and to know that such an incident will not happen again, and if he wanted, they could have a chef or three move to Yggdrasil. Erick didn’t want that...

“But I appreciate your offer.” Erick said, “Don’t worry about it, though. I’m... I’m thinking of a lot of thoughts about [Fairy Stronghold] and [Gate] and— I should have known that I couldn’t walk in the embassy like that; not after what happened yesterday. That was my fault.”

Tasar frowned a little, torn between wanting to ask about [Gate] and obviously thinking that the mob event back there was a failure of hers and Stratagold’s, not of Erick. By her expression, Erick could tell that she chose to let him talk on [Gate] on his own time; she went for the second topic, saying, “Okay. Well. Let me know if you change your mind about the chefs.” She added, “At the very least we can order delivery. You don’t have to actually go inside the embassy, yourself.”

Erick politely waved her off, and then moved the conversation to nicer topics, like how to Remake the various boosting abilities, like Clarity and Strong, and how to best clear out one’s aura of unwanted Essence pollution. He wanted to distance himself from [Fairy Stronghold] for a little bit, to let his ideas on that magic percolate until they were more filled out, and what better way to do that then to work on regaining absolutely all of the points he had ever spent on the Open Script.

Remaking all of the boosting Skills basically came down to something Erick had once thought to do, and which Tasar had given him books on, but which he never got around to doing. Tasar was more than willing to speak on the books, too.

Tasar explained, “Remaking things like Strong, for two and eventually three times base Health, or any of those specific boosting abilities is basically Soul Magic; major Blessings, in particular. Imagine it this way: When you purchase Strong from the Script, you’re actually putting a blessing into yourself. This minor blessing will eventually max out at level 10 through continued use. The whole process is a great deal more difficult to do on your own, but the Script can streamline the process so you can arrive at Strong rather easily, and you already have a lot of experience with making Blessings, so I imagine you will find this process similar to the others, but with nuances.

“For instance: You only have to reach deep enough into Soul Magic to make that initial, small blessing; to create a magnification of your Health. The Script will compensate and grant you the larger Skill, or grant you the Remake Quest Completion in your case. The simplest way to learn what this means is to put a point into a Stat, watch how it changes the body, and then use your aura control to make a blessing/magnification of that exact same thing through a permanent shift in your soul.” She added, “If you do it wrong you could end up making a curse instead, which still has some use, but then it’s either Soul Magic to completely remove the curse, or, if you’re interested in doing some debilitation curses, you can try to transform that curse you’ve cast into yourself into an offensive spell. But since your rings automatically break curses then you might not suffer that particular fate.” She added, “There are other ways to go about getting these particular Skills for the Script is verygood about streamlining efforts into particular directions, but you’re already good with Blessings, so I would go that route if I were in your position.”

Erick glanced at his rings. “Huh.” He took the ring off, watching his soul seem to go from a properly-filled water balloon to suddenly overflowing. His Stats decreased by 31 all across the board, dropping his max Health and Mana by a lot, but he still had that Health and Mana inside of his soul, as a part of his body until it went away. He frowned a little, then stuck the ring back on, saying, “That’s too complicated to look at right now.”

“Oh yes.” Tasar said, “And it’s technically Soul Magic, too.” She added, “Clarity for 50% reduced Mana costs and Precision for 50% Health costs are both matters of precision with aura control and manual casting. You’ve done gridwork, yes? Now all you have to do is make a proper [Force Bolt] or whatever with half as much mana as usual. You likely won’t ever make [Clarity], for it is one of the hardest skills to ever Remake, but you can get close.” She gestured to the books on the shelves of the library, saying, “Those books I gave you have some lessons that might help you with all of that.”

Erick smiled gently, saying, “I’ll get around to that reading when I can. Thank you. Say? So what sort of house would you like? I can start making one, or at least the plans for one. I’d also like to talk about what it means for us to travel together. What you’re expecting. That sort of stuff.”

“Ah! Okay.” Tasar happily began conjuring lightwards, saying, “I prefer a house like...”

Lightwards and plans abounded, as Erick and Tasar spoke of architecture and separation of rooms and privacy, and if [Sealed Privacy Ward] worked to separate parts of the [Fairy Stronghold] from each other. The answer was that yes, Erick could separate his room with a Privacy, and Tasar would likely be able to do the same with her own. They were still at 35 hours remaining on fae watch, but Tasar felt she could certainly leave Erick to his privacy for ten minutes here and there; shouldn’t be trouble at all. As the two of them sat around the kitchen table talking, and planning, Erick was happy to find that mundane conversation was actually quite nice.

Relaxing.

Better than talk of murder and danger, for sure.

Riivo showed up hours later.