Chapter 190, 1/2

Chapter 190, 1/2

Erick flicked his mana through the machine again, and over the course of ten seconds, the sleepy grey rat transformed into a sleepy goldfish. He cut the magic. The lustrous waters around the fish turned from bright white, to something lesser, and then they lost their light altogether. The fish remained sleepy.

There were many parts of Redflame’s Renewal Tank system that Erick did not fully understand. [Baleful Polymorph] was one of those spells, but Erick was pretty sure that he was getting the hang of that magic. Once he got out of here, he could probably make that spell easy enough.

That spell was basically [Polymorph] but twisted into an attack, which made a great deal of difference. Primarily, the person casting the spell was choosing to mutate a person’s existence into something else, but since that was such a broad category of event, there were a lot of small, unsaid rules. Size played a big deal in such a transformation, as well as what the target’s current categorization in the Script. A human-sized target was generally transformed into another human-sized person, with orcol being a very, very rare option. If the target was an orcol, they were usually transformed into a different orcol, and usually one of the opposite sex, with all options usually being a smaller form than the target’s original form. With enough casts, an undirected [Baleful Polymorph] might transform an orcol all the way into a human, or an incani, or a harpy, or whatever. This sort of cast almost always gave the target a physically weaker form, for that was the basic, cheap, undirected version of that spell.

Directed [Baleful Polymorph] was what everyone usually thought of when they heard ‘[Baleful Polymorph]. This then was the full version of the spell, which transformed a target into another form specifically chosen by the caster. An orcol could become a frog. A frog could become an orcol. [Baleful Polymorph] did not change the soul or the mind, though.

[Baleful Polymorph] did not actually give the afflicted person the Familiar Form chosen by the caster, nor did it remove the original Familiar Form of the afflicted. If one were [Baleful Polymorph]ed, all one needed to do was to get [Polymorph] and then use that to transform back to their original Form.

[Baleful Polymorph] could not be [Dispel]ed, though. It was an instant effect; there was nothing to dispel once the magic was done.

If the afflicted wished to actually gain the Familiar Form that they were [Baleful Polymorph]ed into, then that was a whole lot more difficult. There was the slow process of a person just living out their new life and gradually defining their new form as a Familiar Form. Or, there was a quicker way. This quicker way was through Soul Magic. Horribly difficult Soul Magic, too, which usually mangled a person into a monster along the way.

Or rather...

That’s how it had been for a long time.

Until today.

Inferno Maw blinked and huffed for the fifth time since arriving in the enchanting hangar of Redflame’s castle. He gestured forward as he stared at the small Renewal Tank sitting on the sturdy wooden table. “Flip the switch and do it again, if you please.”

Erick complied, flipping a little switch on the side of the fish/rat tank to select for rat. And then he started channeling [Renew].

Ten seconds later, the sleepy gold fish was now a sleepy wet rat. Tiny bubbles of air escaped from his slack mouth, burbling upward to break on the surface of the water.

Erick waited. Redflame waited, too, standing to the side and barely able to contain his own small joy. With Inferno Maw’s increasingly incredulous and disbelieving attitude, it was easy for Erick to feel good about the outcome of this new form of soul surgery and Familiar Form granting.

Inferno Maw straightened up. The dour, tall man was rather skinny-seeming in his long grey and black robes; especially with his large grey horns which arced straight up and a little bit backward. He paused in thought, then turned to his own grey-robed subordinate, saying, “I need an assortment of monsters. Select the meanest, smaller subjects and bring them here.”

The subordinate bowed then turned his head and started a telepathic conversation with someone far away.

Erick frowned, though. Monsters? What was Inferno Maw trying to do? Heal monsters of some sort of essence problem? Monsters didn’t have essence problems. Redflame also gave Inferno Maw a critical eye, unsure of what was going on.

Inferno Maw looked down at Erick, for no other reason than he was rather tall. He turned slightly to take in Redflame, too, and then he spoke to both of them, “Your machine is a miracle. I urge you to create one large enough to take in a person and we start healing our people held in [Stasis], and soon. It is time to increase the rate of production. But more than that!” Inferno Maw’s countenance took on a smooth sort of joy, as though he was on the cusp of solving some of his own problems. “I wish to use this machine to try and clear out the ambient, uncontrolled mana that accumulates in the core of monsters, driving them to madness. I wish to attempt the creation of a true spirit beast; an enlightened animal. Moreover, this will prove whether or not it is possible to turn a wyrm back into a person. To bring back the voice of the voiceless, to restore sound to the silent!”

... Oh. That’s what he was trying to do.

Redflame balked. “Restore a wyrm to sapience? Impossible.”

Inferno Maw digressed, “We might not be able to restore a wyrm to their draconic self, since I think that the Null Ring might be the only true way for this magic to work, but we most certainly can try to bring back a wyrm from such an ignoble death. Or at least we can clear out their soul and allow them to pass on to whatever afterlife they desire. At the very least, and based on what I am seeing, I expect to be able to transform a wyrm into a human, or something along those lines.”

Erick had a few concerns, though.

“Aren’t wyrms dead?” Erick added, “Undead? You can’t [Baleful Polymorph] an object, can you? The spell does target the body, after all, and not the soul. And wyrms don’t have any Dragon Essence anyway?”

Inferno Maw smiled brightly, saying, “You are correct about the limitations of [Baleful Polymorph], but while [Baleful Polymorph] does not appear to work on undead, it still does. It works on anything with a soul. I may be wrong, but I suspect that if you were to put an undead rat with a rad into that tank there, you would be able to create a living fish, simultaneously disintegrating and creating a new fishy-body for the little no-longer-a-rat. I have no idea how the rad would fare through the transition, but I have certain hopes that I must see if they can be fulfilled.

“Wyrms are very complicated undead; completely unlike all other undead, and primarily because they take in and utilize ambient mana at an astonishing rate. They are still monsters, after all, which makes them fit into a category of ‘ambient mana collectors’, and I believe your machine can clear out the ambient mana in a core, replacing what was lost with properly accreted mana.

“I have no idea if such a thing will actually produce a spirit beast, or bring back the voice of a wyrm, but it’s an intriguing proposition and I must discover if it works, or not. What I suspect will happen is that the test subject regains life, but they are no longer who they were when they went into the process. This would be a problem— Eh! Something to figure out later.” He turned and waved a hand at the larger Renewal Tank, and all the scattered enchanting parts, saying, “But what’s more than that! This magic might allow us to accelerate the accretion-time of anyone, allowing the user to use ‘ambient mana’ in the form of Script-granted mana to turn [Renew] upon themselves, allowing one to reach Second and Third and higher Foundations in a matter of days instead of centuries!” Inferno Maw exclaimed, “Monsters rendered reasonable! Accretion accelerated ahead! Every student a genius, gaining—” He paused, frowned, and called out, “Where are you, Fairy Moon? I hear your presence.”

Huh.

Well. The Fairy Moon part aside, accelerated accretion was a great big thing, wasn’t it?

Could a dragon benefit from this, though? No.

Or at least... Not right now?

It was a question. Erick was not sure. The Null Ring stripped all essence from a person, and this very much included Dragon Essence, mutated or not. And there was another problem he needed to consider; the problem of the person-with-a-core versus the person-without-a-core.

While Erick was considering all that, Fairy Moon stepped out of the air.

“My influence inundates this tired, long lived land, Inferno Maw, so it is no wonder you witness my mien all over the everywhere.” Fairy Moon asked, “What do you want?”

“Just to know where you were,” Inferno Maw said, nodding. He turned back to Erick. “You seem concerned over what I just said. Elaborate?”

Redflame had been concerned, too, but his expression was rather inscrutable. He was somewhere between thrilled and concerned.

Erick was firmly concerned. “My problem is that I thought most mortal races could not handle having a core. The people and rats we’ve worked this magic on before did not have cores, but my original design was to include the possibility of a core in a person, and yet Redflame skipped around that possibility because none of the subjects had cores. I only realized then, that cores inside of a person could be bad.

“Most people with cores turn into cannibals. Dragons and half-dragons do not, apparently.

“But Redflame removed the core capability that I had put into my original ring so that this magic could be used on everyone.

“So, my question is this: can mortal races handle having cores? A half-dragon needs mutated Dragon Essence to allow them to hold a core and not go insane, right? This machine erases all Dragon Essence in a person, after all, and it does not work with a person with a core... Though it would be easy enough to go back to my original design if we’re going to be working with cores.”

Redflame inclined his head. Erick had laid out all of his concerns, too. Inferno Maw smiled a little bit, as though Erick had asked an interesting question, but he already knew the answer.

“Ah! Cannibals.” Inferno Maw nodded. “Not a problem.” Erick was not convinced, though, and Inferno Maw saw this, so he continued, “People turning cannibal because of a core is a widespread misconception. While Dragon Essence does have a centering effect, and it does increase the mana one naturally produces, Dragon Essence on its own does not actually enable a person to accrete without turning monster. In order to accrete without turning monster one must know what they are doing, and they must start from a place of one’s own power.

“Most people, be they human or incani or otherwise, when they allow a rad to coalesce inside themselves, they are allowing ambient mana to form the seed of their core. Such a person has automatically started off on the wrong path, and will inevitably become a monster. But! If they had started with a seed of their own creation, then they would have been fine. They likely wouldn’t have gotten anywhere and they would have rapidly devolved into a monster, because people, on their own, do not produce much mana. Dragon Essence increases the mana one self-produces from around 10 mana per day to anywhere between 500 and 5000, and it is at this breakpoint that one actually gains the ability to properly accrete. But theoretically a human with a core of their own make could remain themselves.” With a playful smirk, Inferno Maw said, “Those are just nuances to know for the future, though, because, if I am right, then this thing can even save cannibals, and all other monsters, pulling them out of their polluted-mana fugues. It might be able to reestablish the seed of a core!

“I have no idea what such a cannibal-turned-person would even look like! Most ‘cannibals’ are variant-races, with odd abilities based on what they do while they are monsters. Would they retain those odd abilities? Or would this [Renew Soul] you have carved into this machine actually [Renew] them back down to base person, but with a Second Foundation core, and all the added power thereof?

“But yes; a normal person with a core is a problem because they don’t have the natural mana production to keep their core stable. Such a person would need to use a tank like this every week, or so, I would assume.” Inferno Maw said, “So it is quite possible that we will need to make this thing dissolve the core of whoever is placed inside, too. That will be rather difficult. We might need to do that working in a separate way.”

Ah.

Well then.

... Shit?

Erick had a distressing series of thoughts that boiled down rather fast to a distressing conclusion, and question. Had he accidentally created a method to easily gain super soldiers? Super soldiers that needed to come back into base every so often, or else they would turn monster?

That seemed truly rife for abuse.

... But also: Had he created a way to save every cannibal out there from their monstrous nature? Rozeta had even spoken of how [Renew] should be able to turn a monster into a non-monster. Had she foreseen this specific event, right here?

She had.

Was this... Okay?

Redflame, thankfully, brought the concern back to the actual problem. “We might have created a monster ourselves, but the core-problem aside: This will work, won’t it? Erick’s new design? Will it save people from [Stasis], and from the Trial of the Wyrm?”

“Oh yes. I would hesitate to call this [Renew Soul] a true transformation— a [Reincarnation], as you call it— but only because it’s a magic that has not been recognized by the Script. But that problem is easily solved when you get back to Veird, Erick. Just sing a little song to the mana and make a Blessing out of this magic.” Inferno Maw turned to Redflame, saying, “You and I might be able to extrapolate this effect into a Blessing, too. You, Redflame, might be able to create a Blessing of Carnage, and anyone so blessed might be able to accrete for a theoretical [Carnage Body]. It would still take an act of Wizardry to cause a person with both [Carnage Body] and [Dragon Body] to join them together, using Carnage to erase the Curse in the Dragon Essence, but it seems theoretically doable. It would be a lot more difficult than using [Renew] to simply cause Carnage Dragon, or Fae Dragon, or Death Dragon, but it should be doable.” He turned to Erick. “Similarly, you might not be able to create a Benevolence Dragon, but you could likely enable a person —through the use of a specific enough Blessing— to accrete toward a [Benevolence Body]. From there, the blessed person would need to accrete a [Dragon Body] on their own, but they should be able to then gain a Benevolence Dragon existence through the combination of those two abilities— with your assistance, of course.”

Redflame hesitated to be joyful, electing prudence instead, saying, “I desire to first heal our people. Anything else that comes about will have to happen on its own time.”

Erick stepped in, saying, “I want to heal people, too. Not make soldiers for war.”

Redflame flinched, and then nodded.

“... Ah.” Inferno Maw paused. “Hmm. I am not one for war, either, but I could see how most people would assume this would be for war... I was considering how much power it would take to tame the Crystal Forest. But this would be used for war, first and foremost, wouldn’t it.” He paused. He said, “Okay. New plan. All of what I just said about cores and accretion will remain theoretical, since Erick is the only one who can actually do this right now, since he has [Renew]. So we simply won’t experiment in that direction. Let us stick to healing the malformed.”

Erick felt a great relief. He also felt a lot better about who Inferno Maw was, as a person, too. The Death Dragon hadn’t said a single thing about Erick being a Wizard, or that all of Erick’s accomplishments were based on Wizardry. Erick had been worried about that, but that was probably just his self consciousness talking.

By Redflame’s expression he felt a great sort of relief at not making soldiers for war, too.

And then Inferno Maw brought back Erick’s anxiety, saying, “But I do want to test a properly made machine on a monster. I need to see if it can turn a monster into a spirit beast. I need to see if it can heal a wyrm.”

“... Okay.” Erick said, “I guess I need to know if it actually works that way, too.”

In the future, Erick expected this Renewal Tank system to be well studied. Many people would find out that the only real difference between the core-version of the Renewal Tank and the non-core version was a sub-runic-web which used [Identify] to check for a core, or for the absence of a core, and then adjust accordingly between a focused [Renew] or a larger scale [Renew]. The core-system was a lot simpler than a non-core system, too.

Ahh.

Super soldiers which required those soldiers to come in for weekly treatments.

Maybe that wouldn’t happen, though?

Erick could only think back to Rats, who left over a year ago, and his weekly healing treatments to deal with his lingering Necromancer-caused soul and body wounds. Had Rats been an attempt at a super soldier program?

Redflame breathed deep, worried, and yet resigned.

Fairy Moon nodded, also satisfied, then she said, “It’s past the dinner hour, anyway, so let’s pause this pursuit of knowledge and do more soul surgery when we have satiated stomachs.” She gestured toward the door. “Maid Maria and Redflame’s Chefs have manufactured a magnificent meal which awaits our presence in the small-persons solarium.”

Another realization struck Erick, and this time directly in his stomach. He hadn’t eaten in at least 18 hours. “I could eat.”

For a brief moment Inferno Maw looked like he was going to object to Fairy Moon’s proclamation, but he resigned himself to dinner.

Because Redflame was happy to hear the news of food. He grinned. “Yes! It is time for a break. We will speak more of specifics over a nice meal.” He began walking to the door, saying, “I know that some of our designs are less than perfect, Inferno Maw, so if you have any ideas there they would be most welcome.”

As a group, Erick, Inferno Maw, and Fairy Moon began walking alongside Redflame.

Erick cut the power. Slowly, the white glows in the water began to fade, though the water itself would remain breathable, self-cleaning, and sedative for hours still, now that the machine had been used once.

Redflame breathed out, “Well would you look at that.”

“It works like I hoped it would!” Inferno Maw smiled wide, saying, “Ohhh! This is wonderful! Ah ha! Haha!” He clapped twice in great, yet subdued joy. “This changes everything. All of my stude— No. Wait. No bloodline.” He shrugged away his annoyance at the lack of perfection, and said, “This is a great accomplishment. It can help everyone who has ever accreted incorrectly. It strips out the bloodline, but that is... Fine? Yes. That is fine. It should work on a wyrm... Or on any wyrm’s grand rad... Maybe?”

Redflame chuckled a little, then teased, “I was going to be mad at you if you weren’t happy with this.”

“Bah! I can have my sights on the horizon if I want.” Inferno Maw said, “But this is good. This is great! It might not be perfect but this works!”

Erick felt ten different kinda ways, but most of those ways were good. “This will heal a lot of people, so let’s get to it?”

“Let’s finish up the rats.” Inferno Maw telekinetically plucked the newly-white rat from the tank and brought him over to a new cage already charged with very, very strong [Ward]s; the man had come prepared for whatever sort of odd outcomes this medical marvel might have made. And then he plucked the next sedated, massive and monstrous rat out of its cage. This rat glowed with a faint red shimmer. “And now for the Carnage rat!”

The Carnage rat went into the water.

Erick had Ophiel begin channeling [Renew].

Five minutes later, the rat came out of the water with white fur with brown spots, and no Carnage to it at all.

Redflame still looked happy as he shrugged, saying, “An expected outcome.”

Inferno Maw frowned a little, having deep thoughts. He shared those thoughts, “We might not be able to cultivate for specific bloodlines at all.”

“This is miracle enough,” Erick said.

Inferno Maw nodded. “Quite right! This is miracle enough. Let’s do the rest of the rats and then move on to healing the people who need it.” He added, “Only ten for now, though. We need to observe them for at least five days before I will call this machine fit for all uses.”

Erick suddenly flinched. He asked, “Really?” Sudden doubt crept into his mind. “Does this machine not work perfectly, or something?”

Redflame seemed to share Erick’s sudden concern but he just waited for Inferno Maw to elaborate.

“I knew that would meet with resistance...” Inferno Maw sighed a little, then looked to both of them, saying, “This is a totally new sort of Soul Magic. There are bound to be uncertainties and odd outcomes. You both are simply too caught up in the miracle of it all to be objective. I was, too, for a while.” He added, “And those ten people to first use this machine need to be people we fully interview beforehand, so we can check for memory and soul anomalies after the fact. I doubt this machine harms the patient, but it does replace parts of the soul that do not work correctly, and thus there are bound to be some unforeseen issues. We need to know of these issues before large-scale deployment.”

Erick frowned, but it was mostly at himself. He had certainly pushed hard to get this done today because he knew he would never get another chance to help, here... But the machine was made, and it worked, so this was fine? He could move on.

Erick said, “Prudence is fine, but I’m getting the distinct feeling that my time here in Ar’Cosmos is up. Inferno Maw, Redflame. I won’t be able to help with this beyond today.” He wasn’t sure why, but he said, “I need to talk once more to Bright Smile, then I need to organize whatever needs to be done before I leave this land. You all distrust the Mind Mages a great deal, but I plan on getting them on my side before anyone else approaches. I am reasonably sure that going to them first will be the right call. Them, or perhaps the Church of Koyabez, and the Church of Rozeta. I might actually get to use that [Zone of Peace] I made last year, if only by proxy.” He rambled, “From there? I suppose I’ll either see if the wrought want to kill me, or what. But I’m guessing they don’t, because Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye is still with me.”

At the mention of his name, the big guy’s little eye bobbed up and down on Erick’s shoulder.

Erick added, “And since I’m not dead, that means Rozeta wants to talk, which means that the Inquisitors and the wrought likely want to talk, too. I have no idea about Kirginatharp, but I’m sure that he will also start with words, and not weapons. I need to give them that chance. I might be able to secure a world where we all live in peace, and so, I must try.”

No one spoke for a long moment.

And then Redflame said, “Our people are still debating on how to best proceed with an alliance and so that mess is likely to include you as soon as we can figure out our own stance, but we have never had any luck hashing out any long lasting treaties with the wrought or Kirginatharp or the Mind Mages, and the Dragon Stalkers are simply genocidal. Whatever the outcome, though, I want you to know that I desire to be a strong ally going forward. So if you can make peace happen, and if we need to adjust ourselves to give peace a chance, then I will support any rational actions proposed and backed up by your magic and presence.”

Erick said, “I have no idea if any of this will work without some sort of war, but I hope it does.”

As if coming to a decision he had been considering for a while, Inferno Maw said, “House Death wishes for a strong alliance as well.” He added, “My people are still at those debates, but from what they tell me the Free Dragons, House Fae, and House Carnage are each demanding their own provisions to include in whatever treaty we might decide to enact, though mostly that conversation has devolved into war preparations. Bright Smile is convinced that war is inevitable, and this is perfectly rational behavior, since war has always been the outcome of us stepping outside of Ar’Cosmos. Hopefully we can create some borders and secure them, and then the wrought will test us, and then we can push them back while you call on them to cease their war.” Inferno Maw said, “This is all contingent on whether or not they choose to try and control you or not. They have already come to Ar’Cosmos for talks, and in each one, they demanded we turn you over to them, for they won’t allow us to ‘control Benevolence’, whatever that means. Tyrants; all of them. You can’t really control a new Element once it is made, for now that it is out there it will naturally grow or die depending on who it resonates with, and I suspect that Benevolence will resonate with quite a few of the more paranoid wrought.”

“Ah?” Wide-eyed, Erick asked, “They’re already here?”

“Oh? You were not informed? Ah. I see. You weren’t informed.” Inferno Maw asked, “Do you wish to meet with them this next time? Should be tomorrow around noon.”

For a moment, Erick was paranoid. Had someone failed to inform him that the wrought were already here? Or had that information been purposefully kept from him?

Fairy Moon and Redflame just watched, both of them wondering what Erick would say. Fairy Moon looked impassive, while Redflame looked worried. Redflame did not want Erick to meet the wrought, but more because of his own bad experiences with the wrought, as opposed to any desire to control Erick. Seeing Redflame’s reaction, Erick imagined that, as the creator and thus lynchpin of Ar’Cosmos, Redflame had been targeted by wrought for assassination at least a hundred times already.

Erick said, “I want to meet with these wrought.”

“Of course.” Inferno Maw paused for a fraction of a moment, then said, “Pardon me for not bringing it up sooner. Ah! Would you accept an assistant? Someone to allow us to contact you without contacting you directly? I know how gauche it appears to offer you such assistance, but— Ah! We could send a request for someone else to come here and fulfill that niche. Someone you know and trust? Your own people?”

Erick did need some of his own people here. And maybe not just his own people? He considered, then said, “I’d like to have my whole team here, and a delegation from Stratagold involving Tasar, Sitnakov, and Kromolok. How about a delegation from Oceanside, too, if they’ll have it?”

Inferno Maw paused again, unsure how he had gotten here. He had not expected such a large request, and now he was trying to decide how to best tell Erick ‘no’, or to figure out the logistics of such a massive security breach.

Redflame suddenly held his breath.

“Thy desire shall be done.” Fairy Moon said, “Your guests shall be led to their own layer, which will come about by your continued casting of [Renew] into a node. If they shall choose not to chase you into this lovely land, then they will not be forced. Be warned now for I will warn them too, that they will be housed under hospitality rites, and all those oldest of ordinations. Break the peace and have pieces broken in turn.”

Erick turned his full attention to Fairy Moon, and then he pulled back the sudden vitriol threatening to come out of his mouth. He said, “If peace is to have a chance, then all sides must abide by a high level of professionalism. No tricks. If you trap them in sleep and they wake up enraged and rightfully lash out, don’t take their agency from them, Fairy Moon. That is a bad trick.”

Fairy Moon smirked, and said, “I’ll try.”

Erick almost sighed. ‘I’ll try’ could mean that she would try her worst.

“You will try to be diplomatic, and non-tricky?” Erick asked.

Fairy Moon chuckled a little, then said, “I’ll be as diplomatic as deeds demand and not a mote more, but mostly I will make myself a phantom of principles and power, and not much for actual politics. I will scare the scrupulous into shackles of a temporary time until they leave this land. This should suffice, shall it not?”

Erick...

Erick said, “Sure. Fine.”

Redflame gave a wan smile.

Inferno Maw gave a small, real smirk, trying not to show too much of his own surprise and joy at the moment, for he was truly happy that this thing was working out. With a half-sarcastic tone, because that’s the kind of person he was, he said, “If we get everyone to agree to such provisions, then maybe we won’t go to war!”

Those words jogged a memory.

Erick asked, “Have you ever interacted with the grass travelers north of Songli? You probably have, or at least you know what I’m talking about, but they have this thing where they debate in open forums over laws and such. ‘Polite War’, it’s called. They only actually go to war if they cannot solve their problems in open debate, first.”

“Ahh!” Redflame smiled wide, saying, “That brings me back. We used to have that around here. That was the original reason for the coliseum.”

Inferno Maw said, “These days we’re rather entrenched in our ways with a power structure that works. There’s little room for advancement for the younger generations, and that’s a problem, but we’ve been debating problems in the Rotunda for hundreds of years now.”

“Oh yes.” Redflame said, “We moved past Polite War because of limited space, but I imagine that something like that might come back, now that our environs might expand.” He smiled brighter—and then he realized his teeth were showing, so his joy took a bit of a tempering as he closed his lips. The momentary lapse of propriety, or whatever it was (Erick suspected Redflame’s aversion to open smiling had something to do with Bright Smile, but he did not know for sure), quickly passed, and Redflame began talking about his favorite subject; History. “Back in the Old Cosmology, it used to be said that there were a thousand and one ways to run a proper, growing society, but they all basically boiled down to a few tenets: Freedom of common movement, freedom of common commerce, freedom of basic education, protection against monsters and outsiders, protection against common violence which means both theft and murder and everything like that, and protection against uncommon magics. All the definitions of every category varied between societies and civilizations, but the basic ideas were the same.

“Now the most common form of stable government was usually enacted under an immortal Wizard King, which was a specific designation handed out by the various Wizard alliances across the Old Cosmology and did not always include a Wizard. Sometimes the Wizard King was actually a dragon. Such a system was mostly like a monarchy, but with extra steps, which included...” His voice trailed off. “Well. It was complicated. I’d love to have you over again tomorrow evening, and we can continue to discuss all that.”

“I’ll take you up on your offer, if I can,” Erick said, and he meant it. He felt a sort of relaxed joy as he listened to Redflame talk of what came before, and it was only now that he realized why. Redflame did not speak of what came before the Sundering like it was an impossible-to-reclaim dream. He spoke of history like he had lived it, experienced it, and then moved on, but those past glories were never truly gone. They could always be remade. It was rather refreshing, actually. “Whatever comes next will hopefully be good for all.”

“I do hope so!” Redflame said.

Inferno Maw nodded. Then he turned back to the machines, “A few more experiments, then.”

“Of course,” Erick agreed.

- - - -

With the moon high overhead and it being well into night, Erick, Fairy Moon, and Maid Maria eventually left Redflame’s castle, heading back out across the forest to return to Fairy Moon Manor.

Erick had left four Ophiel with Redflame for more tests. In the morning, in about 10 hours, Erick would join Fairy Moon, Inferno Maw, Redflame, Illustrious Moon, Bright Smile, and the current Speaker of the Free Dragons in the Rotunda, to discuss what shape a ‘House Benevolence’ would take, and the nature of the latest breakthrough with the Renewal Tank.

Hopefully the talk would be boring, with Erick laying out his plans and his hopes for ‘another city beside Candlepoint, where people could live however they wanted to live’. There would be more to it than that, of course, but that was the basic idea. Complications were sure to arise, though.

Thanks to Fairy Moon’s explanation of what would happen, Erick now knew of one of those complications before it occurred. The current Speaker of the Free Dragons was a woman named Redrubyflare, who normally went by the name ‘Red’ while out and about in the world. Erick had heard that name before, and Fairy Moon confirmed his suspicions. Red was the same ‘Red’ that oversaw all the lands of Songli, killing all dragons that showed themselves in the Highlands, quickly ending dragon fights before they threatened the populace.

Redrubyflare was actually distantly related to Redflame, as well as Bright Smile, by about four generations, according to Fairy Moon. She did not speak much on personal matters, but she did say that Red’s side of their family branched off of Carnage and moved out of Ar’Cosmos nearly a thousand years ago; they weren’t even truly family anymore.

“There are many families like that,” Fairy Moon said, as they strolled through the moonlit forest, on the way back to Fairy Moon Manor. The stars sparkled overhead and the night was bright with the light of a full moon. “House Fae has current claims in Continental Nergal. House Death has deep ties to Quintlan. House Carnage has family all over, but those ties are rather removed from current control. Redrubyflare does provide much providence to Ar’Cosmos, though she does not domain here, and it is through that payment of produce and products that we have elevated her to Speaker of the Free Dragons.”

Erick listened, and nodded. One thing about Fairy Moon’s words stood out to him, though. “Red isn’t actually a normal dragon then, is she? She’s a Carnage Dragon? Which means she’s speaking for people she’s not a part of?”

“Correctly calculated, but not wholly correct. Sometimes some scattered souls manage to make of themselves a true Paradox’d dragon.” Fairy Moon said, “Redrubyflare is one such soul. This is still a point of contention for the people of that community, for she is not singularly Dragon, but Redrubyflare does a decent job keeping herself in power.”

Another oddity stood out to Erick. “If she doesn’t need to kill dragons like all the rest... Does she actually kill the dragons she finds fighting in her lands?”

Fairy Moon nodded as she casually leapt over a small stream, twirling in the air, to land on the other side like a ballerina, arms lightly spread and hands held poised for the briefest of moments. Erick and Maid Maria just stepped over the stream, following along.

Fairy Moon said, “She kills and kills and kills to keep her claim on her harbors and her hearth. Least that’s how it was the last time I was temporarily there.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Two years ago. An ancient age in this ever changing world, to be sure!” Fairy Moon smiled wide at him, then she turned and continued to daintily hop down the forest path, saying, “As of the birthing of Benevolence we are now in a new age of ancient powers, freshly forged, awaiting the simple turning of the times in order to come into their own commands! All this talk and threats and working and wills clashing is but a chiming of the clock of infinity, hitting a new hour, sending hammer blows billowing wide, breaking and remaking the world in its passing.” Fairy Moon paused in a shaft of moonlight, staring up at the heavens, to say, “A time of power and purpose. I have seen it a thousand times before and I will see it a thousand times hence, but each time it is a thrill and a terror entwined.” She turned to Erick. “Don’t get yourself dead, Erick. Long as you can manage life, the mana will manifest magnificently.”

Erick frowned a little as he stepped over a rock. “I need to do more than simply survive. I need to make everyone else survive, too.”

“That’s one way to wiggle out of death’s dark designs.” Fairy Moon shrugged. “Do what you desire!”

And then the fae went skipping through the forest again.

Eventually, the three of them made it back to the manor.

Maid Maria said nothing the entire time.