Chapter 216, 1/2

Chapter 216, 1/2

Erick glanced at Quilatalap’s presentation and saw very little that he didn’t already know, and since the archlich himself was not in residence at the moment, Erick did not go inside. He did, however, read all the lightpaintings with a quick tour of Ophiel to figure out Quilatalap’s path for the past year.

The Archlich of Necromancy had lost a body to Tania Webwalker’s magic, near the end of Last Shadow’s Feast. Erick recalled Taina using [Chaining Soul Destruction], or something similar to that, for the spell she actually told him was surely not the one she truly used. For Erick, Quilatalap’s absence had been noticed, then then passed over, but for Quilatalap, he had taken a month to come back to himself. When he came back he saw that the Armory had been destroyed and everything had been looted, so before he started couch surfing, trying to find a new home, he moved to collect the more dangerous artifacts before they could do too much damage. As the Caretaker of the Armory he had tagged every single one of the truly dangerous items so he could locate them if they ever got taken without his permission; and that is what he did.

Collecting many of those items had been a simple matter of picking the item off of the floor where the inexperienced user had attempted to use the item, and had failed spectacularly. Most of those people Quilatalap had been able to [True Resurrection] back to life, but sometimes the trails of bodies had been weeks in the creation, or the artifact he had been pursuing had been a soul-destroying artifact. Quilatalap was an accomplished archlich with the power of Time on his side, but even he could only bring back a portion of many of those thieves.

And then Quilatalap shoved all those artifacts into a deep hole somewhere. If the ‘Trials of the Dark’ should return, then those items would likely go into those trials, to be won from test takers and the worthy, as was intended.

In a private conversation during the course of the Sovereign Cities war, in one of their many Hasted spaces, Erick had heard a lot of this. He had also told Quilatalap that he should just destroy the lot of them. Quilatalap had vehemently said no; some of those artifacts were priceless relics which taught basic fundamentals about mana, and which must be preserved. The Fang of Darkness was Quilatalap’s preferred example of artifacts that must never be destroyed, for that tooth had been directly gifted from Melemizargo to a Shade many years ago, in order to teach that Shade Destruction Magic in ways that were impossible to know otherwise. With that artifact in one’s possession, one could even Remake [Cleanse] without killing oneself, or make such fabled, yet simple spells like [Destruction Bolt].

This specific example had led Erick to asking if Quilatalap knew [Destruction Bolt], which he did.

The Archlich of Necromancy then threw a Bolt of seeming-darkness at a rock, erasing half that rock from existence.

And then Erick had done the same thing, easy as flicking a finger, because that was what Erick had been doing every time he had tried to channel ‘Shadow’. He had been accidentally channeling Destruction.

Standing here now, walking by Quilatalap’s presentation and seeing the Fang of Darkness listed as one of the recovered artifacts... Erick remembered Quilatalap’s surprised expression at seeing Erick’s dark Bolt, and then his laugh, which only got louder as Erick told of why he had thought he had been doing Shadow-altering all this time, and then louder still when Erick asked why he didn’t get a blue box for that spell.

“Destruction is uncodified magic, Erick!” Quilatalap had guffawed. “Of course you can’t get that spell in a box! And of course you can do it that easily! Ha!” And then suddenly more serious, “Don’t use that spell in combat unless you absolutely have to, okay? Elemental Destruction is still exceedingly dangerous, no matter how much anyone thinks they’re good at it.”

That had led to a conversation about the grass traveler clans of northern Songli, and the [Cleanse] Archmage, Koori Pale Cow, who was very good at Destruction Magic.

This had completely surprised Quilatalap, his eyes going wide and his mouth dropping open. And then he had shut his mouth, and said, “Maybe I need to go see this woman. She’s a rare talent.”

“She had hated magic, but I think I got her to like it again.” Erick had added, “And I think she might become Empress of Nelboor, or something, eventually. That’s what I saw when I mana sensed her once. It was a really weird thing to see, too.”

Quilatalap had nodded, then said, “Then I suppose I must meet her; if not now, then later.” He smirked, teasing, “It’s good to get in on the ground floor of knowing people before they become too important.”

Erick had laughed. “Is that what’s going on here! Am I just a page in your fuck book?”

“Ohhhh... You’re more than a page. Maybe two. Two and a half if I feel like writing an essay, which I probably will.”

Erick had laughed at the time.

Now, as he passed by Quilatalap’s unmanned presentation, he wasn’t laughing.

The writing on the wall was clear; the man moved around a lot, and he never set down roots. Had he even had a real relationship in the last... thousand years? Or however long? Was the time between the two of them a fling? They were both immortals, after all, so maybe relationships between immortals were only ever flings. And yet, Erick was still only 49. Perhaps it was crazy to get into a relationship with the 3000+ year old archlich, even though they were both so comfortable with each other...

And yet, if Quilatalap actually did think that Erick was Xoat, then who was the truly older one?

... Erick didn’t want to think about Xoat anymore, because the simple fact was that Erick wanted Quilatalap and Quilatalap had wanted him... Had wanted? Had that changed? Or had Quilatalap never wanted Erick at all, and he was simply happily enthusiastic for Erick’s own constant and enthusiastic consent?

Did Quilatalap actually like Erick—

Erick chided himself. Yes, Quilatalap did like Erick in the same way that Erick liked him, but everything was weird right now.

Hopefully it would work out.

Erick moved on.

- - - -

Erick walked into the presentation for Ar’Cosmos.

He paused, as he saw, and he recognized.

There was a lot.

Names of people he had never met, along with their dragon forms and horns, and their new lands, which were sometimes old lands which had belonged to other people and yet which were stolen by these dragons. They were the new movers and shakers of Ar’Cosmos, the ones who had arrived due to the Dragon Exodus and taken everything that others had built and made it their own and expanded, but they were only half the story of the recent horrors of Ar’Cosmos.

Another part of the presentation, and about that whole Dragon Exodus story, was about Erick’s gift of runic [Renew] rings, which could be used by anyone to prop up any existing magic. In addition to that original instantiation of [Renew], Redflame and Inferno Maw had worked hard on making new rings. They had also semi-perfected the Renewal Tanks, which would cleanse people of their mutated dragon essence problem, and also imbue people with levels of accretion at a rate that far, far outstripped a person’s innate ability to gain themselves. Erick’s concern over super soldiers was a reality, and it had only taken a few months for that to to be halfway-perfected, and even less time for those soldiers to go on winning wars far out of sight of all normal people.

But those soldiers were just small potatoes compared to the original purpose of the runic [Renew] rings, which were to allow anyone to pump mana into a node of Ar’Cosmos, to fortify and expand the land. This was where the major story took place; the stage upon which everything unfolded. As Erick gazed upon the presentation, he realized that this expansion of land was a microcosm of what would happen when Erick eventually opened up new worlds. What had happened in Ar’Cosmos was nothing at all like how new lands were cleared here in the real world, for here in the real world there were monsters in all these lands. Always moremonsters, and from every possible vector. From under the ground, from the air, from visitors unknowingly bringing them into town, to outsized threats rolling across the land, spotting a new village/town/city/etc in the distance and then attempting to roll over that land and eat everyone they could find.

But not in Ar’Cosmos.

There were no monsters in Ar’Cosmos.

And so, the expansion of that land had been the only real expansion of safe land that Veird had seen since the Old Cosmology. It was war. It was genocide. It was death and destruction and complete expansion into pristine, virgin territory, which would remain free of the largest threat on this planet. No monsters meant every bit of land gained would be kept.

Erick was having trouble wrapping his mind around just how big of a change all this was, but he knew it was big. Everyone did. But it was too big to really calculate in any meaningful way.

The unseen war of Fairy was magnified by the number of dragons vying for power, so perhaps looking at this war and seeing possible future parallels between the opening of new worlds was disingenuous, but...

Not too disingenuous.

Erick gazed across the presentation, and saw maps upon maps, of a world half-there; of an overlay of Fairy upon the real Surface of Veird.

Ar’Cosmos remained the solid center of the main map, located in the near-center of the Forest of Glaquin, surrounded by fogs that delineated the ‘edge of Fairy’, but tendrils of forest expanded away from that initial land, like someone had cleared the fog and laid down roads. The center of the map remained Ar’Cosmos, in about a thousand kilometer diameter sphere, but to the north, along the edge of the coast, lay another city called Coast. To the far southeast, where Treehome was located in the real world, lay a city called Arbor. To the east of Arbor, in the Wyrmridge Mountains, where the Firemaws lay, was a city called Volcano. Rather unimaginative names, but those were the ones Erick focused on because of their locations. They had likely been named in their simplistic way to allow others to easily know them. Many other cities had opened up all inside the Fairy side of the Forest of Glaquin, but Coast was on the other side of where Erick’s Gate to the Forest lay, and Arbor was on the other side of where Yggdrasil grew, and Volcano was... Well it was at the Volcano. Erick wasn’t sure what made Volcano special, but it was probably special, if for no other reason than its size. Volcano was easily the largest new city in Fairy, rivaling even Ar’Cosmos for size.

And yet, those cities were just the cities on the major maps.

Ar’Cosmos was divided into layers of reality, with at least 5, and probably as many as 10 different ‘Ar’Cosmosi’ within the same geographical location as the city itself.

That division spread out on 5 other maps. Each one of them had different lands upon it; different tendrils of cleared space made in the Edge of Fairy, where a dragon or a group of people had laid claim to some new town or space they were building upon that layer of Fairy.

All of it was a shock of information to the system.

But even more than that—

A single second had passed. Fairy Moon stepped away from the wall where she had not been until suddenly she was. She was already smiling—

“You have so much space!” Erick gestured to the layered maps. “This is the opening of an entire Surface continent! WHY WAS THERE A WAR!”

Erick was weirded out. Furious. Curious and caustic all at once. His words came out harsh, and Erick made them harsher halfway through when he realized exactly how angry he was.

Fairy Moon smirked and chuckled. She cared not for Erick’s anger. “Because dragons are dragons! And there was a bit of a bother about a runic [Renew] ring that briefly fell out of our control. But the war is won now. Bright Smile secured it all, and she’ll be securing all of it more and more as time ticks on. We’re a decade or two away from Carnage accretion tanks, though the numbers on that estimate will need to be re-estimated on the gaining of [Renew] itself in the Open Script.”

“... I suppose I will never understand normal dragons, and that is how it will be.” Erick shook his head lightly, changing the subject, “Are you finding the Feast acceptable?”

“Oh yes! Your Cooks cast a fantastic Feast of cookery and charm in overabundance and overmeasure. I even asked for some favorite foods and Donny assayed an appreciable awalotia.”

“... I have never heard that word before?”

“It’s a type of bread and meat and cheese, which is that son’s specialty.”

Erick waved off the presentation, saying, “Congrats on winning your war, then. I hope it is less bloody going forward.”

“Then you will visit?” Fairy Moon said, with a great grin. “You have a piece of property that remains untouched, waiting for your Wizardly ways.”

“Maybe when I’m actually immune to your power I’ll think about going in there again.” Erick changed the subject again, because he wanted to, “So as an ally of House Benevolence, what are your thoughts on the House so far? About anything I’ve done recently, or whatever you feel like commenting on.”

Fairy Moon had looked like she was about to say something, and then Erick changed the subject, and so she looked lost and a bit frustrated. And then she turned curious, and then contemplative. After a moment she said, “The correction of the Cities was a terrible thing on the level of horrors untold and unable to be told. Souls should not be snipped and rearranged and then Blessed into Benevolence like you have done. And yet, I also hate the Cities with a carving passion that predates my hate of Forgotten Campaigns. So... Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving domain.” She added, “What you did to the dragons that defenestrated themselves from Ar’Cosmos was less than divine, too, but the Benevolencing was and will continue to be amazing, and many things are forgiven in the creation and stabilization of a civilization.”

“You’ve been to the Cities, then?”

“Many many times! Truth to tell, I can never stay there overlong for finding a person that needs to die is like finding a pebble on a beach; sure as the surf serves up stones. Hopefully with some Benevolence dragons and the rebels and the Blessed Nobility in charge, that place will perchance to change.”

“Ask me what?” Fallopolis said, stepping out of the shadows and into the room.

“Did you read the letter?” Erick asked.

“... That was not what you were going to ask me.”

“I know, but you were pretending like you didn’t know what I was already talking about, so I wanted to blindside you.”

Fallopolis rolled her eyes, though it was hard to tell with her eyes being pools of light. She shrugged her shoulders, saying, “I read your letter. It was only 5% new to me—”

Buzz. Lie.

“—and yes, that was a lie, because I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

And that was the truth.

Fallopolis said, “Go ahead and Shape your land however you wish! You won this land by right of conquest and you could have done this Shaping last year.” She looked to Erick. “You can Shape this land, though. No others.”

Erick frowned at her. “The people I’ve appointed couldn’t do it?”

“The Dark wants you to grow further! So learn how to [Cityshape], Erick, and bring water to your people, besides, you know, through the falling-from-the-sky option.” Fallopolis smirked. “It will be good practice for when you eventually start [Planeshape]ing.”

“World Shaping shouldn’t be that hard with Scripts, and I already have [Terraforming] for plant and life creation. Why would I want to make cities anyway? Let the people make their own houses.”

Fallopolis clicked her tongue. “Erick! That has nothing to do with the problem. [Cityshape] is a big spell and you have yet to do anything too deep with Stone magics, and that is irresponsible. You can’t make Scripts and you especially cannot allow others to make Scripts without knowing how magic truly works. You’re also required to learn true Fire Magic. Air and Water Magics are only barely passable, and that’s because you have [Control Weather], but you should learn how to Shape mountains of water, too.”

“... We have vastly different ideas of what I expect out of a world.”

“... Maybe? What do you expect out of a world?”

“A barren rock of a world which orbits its sun and is maybe 13,000 kilometers in diameter. Upon these worlds, a seed of Yggdrasil will fall, and then take root. This seed envelops the planet in an Edge, so that mana cannot escape to the void, and then that seed casts a bunch of [Duplicate] to make water and other essential things, and then [Terraforming] to begin a water and plant growing cycle. Maybe some [Cleanse] to remove natural toxins in the ground and in any sort of atmosphere... It’ll be complicated, but eventually the world will become habitable to everyone. When that happens we can link up with this new world through a [Gate] through Benevolence.” Erick added, “And when the new world has basic life support, others will come in from other worlds and populate the new planet, transforming it however else they wish to transform the place. I won’t be controlling how people populate the land.”

Fallopolis paused for a moment, then she said, “I have too many things to say about all of that, so I’m not going to say anything except that your plan is not nearly expansive enough.”

Erick brightened. If that was the direction Fallopolis took his plan, then he could work with that. “Well of course it’s not planned out enough. One second.” With a mental command, Ophiel dropped down from the upper floors, carrying a pile of paper. “But since you want a great big report, let me fashion a preliminary project idea...” With an expert sunform, Erick began picking up papers and lightly singing the paper to mark down his entire idea for Yggdrasil seed spreading. He began at the initial mana investment for a seed, which was some number he did not know, along with the basic spells needed for terraforming, including [Cleanse] and [Duplicate] and the [Terraforming] spell itself, but also the Script support for Yggdrasil’s basic magics, and the support for [Gate]. And then he did a whole lot more. Within a minute Erick had made a hundred and thirteen page report, complete with images, lots of no-jargon wording, and a bunch of ideas that were not really spoken of too much outside certain circles, but which seemed important for making new worlds. With one final flourish, Erick bound the whole thing into a book, and then [Duplicate]d the book into another two copies. He handed the original to Fallopolis, saying, “There’s a lot of science in there about weather patterns and solar winds and magnetospheres and upper atmospheres, and magma and iron planet cores and a bunch of earth-sciences, all of which comes from an Earth understanding of how worlds are supposed to work outside of Script influence. In this knowing, we might be able to lower maintenance mana costs of a Script quite a lot, and provide extra barriers to mana leakage, so that the Edge of those Scripts is much easier to contain.”

Fallopolis stared at the book, taking it from Erick. Erick handed the other two to Zolan, nodding as the man took the books, his eyes going wide but then rapidly going small again. Probably because he had never wanted to actually see Erick use [Duplicate] so openly, but then again everyone already knew that Erick had that spell. So that was whatever.

Erick continued, “But you’re right. I don’t know how the Script works too well, and I’m possibly making a fool of myself for making this book. But that’s okay. Rozeta said she would speak to me about all that in seventy years, once this new equilibrium of stability actually stabilizes.”

Fallopolis held the book in her hands like it was a weight. And then the book vanished in a flicker of shadows and Fallopolis stood strong again, grinning. “We look forward to your Telling tonight, Erick!”

“Volaro and Bright Smile will be doing that, and it’s going to be something called a ‘Prime Telling’. Whatever that is.” Erick added, “Or a ‘True Telling’. Though I’m not sure what that is either.”

Fallopolis’s eyes went wide. “Oh Dark God.”

And then she vanished in a flicker of shadows.

... And Erick slowly smirked. He said to Zolan, “You know, Zolan. I really like making them all freak out. It’s a welcome change of pace.”

With a dejected air, Zolan asked, “You think the drug bar is a bad idea? Or simply for fun? Because I’m thinking I’m way too sober.”

“I know you’re joking, but... When I hired you I promised you would never need to work with a Shade, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to make a Gate to New Brightwater when this Feast is over— If they all behave, of course.”

“... I am not actually about to get inebriated during a time like this, but you almost make me want to.”

Erick smiled wide. “Sorry about that, Zolan.”

“See now... You say you’re sorry, but I am not sure you are.”

Erick chuckled, and then his smile softened until it went away entirely. With a heaviness to his voice, Erick said, “I am sorry. But this Feast happening like it is happening is probably still better than any of the alternatives.”

Zolan nodded, and then with an air of nonchalance, he asked, “Have you heard many Telling stories before?”

“Not at all. Got any stories for me so I’m not blindsided later?”

“I do. They used to be really popular a thousand years ago, but they crop up now and then. I probably know the one that Ar’Cosmos is going to give...”

- - - -

Dinner was had, and it was wonderful. Erick thanked the Cooks, and so did everyone else. Now that meal times had happened five times already, and good food in great quantities had been available at all points in time, Erick recognized that getting fed by 8, 9, and a 10 star Cook had resulted in perhaps some of the most polite interactions between Shades and everyone else that Erick had ever seen. Erick worried a bit when Farix hit on Donny again, but that was the extent of the untoward actions made toward the Cooks, or their staff. Even Treant had been grateful for the meals, which was some of the only times that Erick had ever seen the dour bark-skinned man look a little less dour.

Treant really liked his lemon bars.

Being seated at the same large round table in the center of the atrium, with everyone served at the same time, probably had something to do with the politeness. Or maybe Erick was imagining that. Whatever. There were no servants or otherwise at that large round table. Just Erick, Quilatalap, all the Shades, Fairy Moon, Bright Smile, and Erick’s overseers, in that order around the space. Same as yesterday. It was nice to eat at the same table, in Erick’s opinion, with no one above anyone else. For a lot of the Shades this was odd, but they adjusted well enough.

And then dinner was over, everything was put away, and the stage was set for the evening’s entertainment. It was time for the First Telling, and Volaro and Bright Smile moved into position to begin that Telling.

All throughout dinner the conversation had been weird because of many different factors...

But dinner, with these sorts of people, was always going to be weird.

Maybe last night’s dinner had been weirder, though, due to Erick’s performance and everyone had needed time to digest that. But tonight’s dinner had been weird, too, for everyone was talking about the presentations and about plans, and they were also speaking around the topic of the First Telling. Fairy Moon had hinted at ‘nothing but Truth will be Told tonight’ and Fallopolis had said something about how ‘Truths and Fairy Truths were not always the same’, which had started a good natured (but not really) talk that ended in Erick declaring how the Dark’s Truths and Fairy Truths might have come at history from different angles. They dropped that subject then.

Fallopolis diverted that conversation to nicer topics, back to speaking of the presentations, because she did not want to have a religious talk with Fairy Moon at all.

And now Fallopolis stood prepared-to-be-mad, as the lights dimmed overhead.

Volaro stood tall and resplendent in white and black-lined robes, his eyes of red Carnage fire glowing brightly. He could have become a dragon for the Telling, as was how it was supposed to be, but he remained orcol-sized. Volaro stood on the left side of the stage.

Bright Smile was a meter shorter than Volaro, but she stood tall, too, on the right side of the stage, her red and pink dress looking like weighted fire wrapped around her deeply-tanned frame. She could become a dragon, too, but she remained human-sized, taking her place on the right side of the stage.

Volaro spoke with a deep voice, “The time is nigh.

Bright Smile continued, “The sun has set.

Every single Shade, and Erick, and Quilatalap, responded, “The time to Break and Make is met.

So far, so good. That was normal.

Fallopolis relaxed a fraction, and so did every single other Shade. Quilatalap glanced at Erick, to his side, smiling softly. Erick returned the glance, and then grabbed Quilatalap’s hand. The big guy flinched a fraction, but then he smiled brighter, and squeezed back.

Zolan and Aisha, and many of the Cooks and helpers off to the side, watching from a safe distance, looked like they were witnessing a train wreck; they could not look away.

Together, Volaro and Bright Smile’s voices filled the atrium, “In the beginning of the Darkness’s Cosmology, there was only Darkness.”

And that part was different.

Fallopolis frowned. A few worried looks passed between the Shades. Zolan almost chuckled but he strangled his expression to an unruly frown, threatening to turn into a smile at any moment. He was enjoying the complaints of the Shades. Quilatalap’s eyes widened a fraction. Aisha tsk’d.

And then Fairy Moon stepped out onto the stage between Volaro and Bright Smile, and all eyes focused on her. She wasn’t supposed to be a part of this Telling, but as soon as Erick had that thought, he realized that he should have expected this.

The petite fairy wore a schoolgirl-like dress of white, pink, and green. She raised her head, her heterochromatic eyes blazing fresh-growth-green and nuclear-pink. Her voice filled the world,

“But before the Darkness...”

Springtime asked for the floor, and Darkness retreated.