Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick stepped into the hallway close to Tasar’s office, but before he could knock, Tasar’s green copper mother opened the door, inviting him inside with a small smile and an easy countenance. She asked if he wished for tea, and this time they might actually get to enjoy it since Tasar might be a while. Erick accepted.

Erick sat down across from the older woman. “Tasar took me to her home neighborhood yesterday. It was a bit of a culture shock, but still enjoyable. I assume it was your hometown, too?”

Otaliya poured tea, happily saying, “Yes. Many, many centuries ago, but I haven’t been back in a long time. Not since I ran into my former husband and everything changed. Tasar goes back sometimes but I bet either of us could answer questions about it. Why do you ask?” She handed him his tea, then sipped her own.

Erick took his tea, sipped it, and set it back down, before saying, “A few reasons. The main one though, is that I want to know what it means to deal with the adamantium wrought, and you might be able to shine some nice light on that situation. I’ll probably ask Tasar, too, but that seems like it could be insensitive.”

“Not much experience with wrought, eh?”

“Practically zero.” Erick said, “Though now as I’m saying it, it seems rather ridiculous to not just ask her these sorts of questions, too.”

Otaliya smiled a bit, saying, “Many people operate under certain misapprehensions about wrought, mainly regarding the idea that since we’re all made of different metals and since we have a caste system that we’re all truly different from each other. This is both vastly untrue, and yet also true in smaller ways. In the smaller ways, Silvers like their magics, Coppers like their routines more than most, and the Heavies like cultivating, maintaining, and ensuring the proper use of power. But in the larger ways, everyone can love and live with everyone else. But love often leads to children, and certain blends… They do not survive. I got lucky with my children. Many others aren’t ever willing to take the chance.

“But as for the Heavies themselves— The adamantium. They are the rulers by ancient decree, and they take that role very seriously. That’s all you really have to know about them. Individually they’re as different as anyone, but on the whole, they are born ready to break the world if they have to, in order to make it better, and this makes them both great leaders and terribly stubborn. If you try to fit into their world they’ll love you more than most. If you go against the flow they’ll discard you at best, or… They’ll try to discard you, first. Escalation is never the best way to deal with the Heavies.”

Erick felt some relief, but an entirely new set of apprehensions fell upon his shoulders.

“Thank you.” Erick asked, “Do you have any advice for someone headed into an inquiry with the Church of Rozeta and others?”

“Oh!” Otaliya perked up. “Are you headed into an inquiry?”

“I am, as soon as I get around to it.” Erick said, “I was given suggestions to speak to at least three emergency inquiry preparatory committees before I go to my inquiry, and to take my Bright Tea appointment before the inquiry, too.”

Otaliya went still for a moment, seeming to decide something. Then she said, “All good advice. I used to do a lot of that years ago. I can serve as one of those EIPCs, if you desire, free of charge, and give you a wrought perspective that is different from most. I used to do this all the time for people in your particular situation of needing to deal with the Heavies and other powerful organizations inside Stratagold.” She rapidly added, “But you should get some current-day EIPCs, too. Downstairs in the main lobby, down to the right, you’ll find many inquiry services. An emergency IPC will cost a fair bit, but you would likely get a massive discount due to their desire to secure a win. They all trade on their reputations down there, and getting a win with you would put them in a category higher than most others.” She smiled, adding, “Savior of Light.”

Erick smiled. “Well then.” He nodded. “I believe I will take you up on that offer, but not today. I still have some organization of my own to clear away before I start thinking about my inquiry. This is lovely tea, by the way. What kind is it?”

“Tasar goes far and wide with her t-stations, so this one comes all the way from…”

They spoke of nothing in particular for a little while until Tasar showed.

- - - -

In a well-guarded room in the center of the embassy, Erick walked with Tasar down a solid hallway deep into the bowels of the place. They passed guards stationed to prevent entry and magical barriers that could be thrown up to block egress whenever they were needed. There were even a pair of portcullises on both ends of the hallway. At the end of the short descent was a grand space that only had one way in and one way out, and only contained a few objects; a guard station near the entrance, a blast door ready to slam shut in case of wrongful entry, a large holographic map of the t-station networks distributed across the world, and one single t-station, sitting in the center.

As they were in the room, a pair of people popped out of the t-station, glanced at Erick and Tasar, and kept walking up the hallway. They showed papers to the guards—

More people blipped in, then moved out.

So this place was an actual working t-station node, then? The structure of the place and all the traffic brought forth a question that had percolated in Erick’s mind, but which he hadn’t gotten to ask until now.

“So these things are all over the place… Why was Enduring Forge trying to create them? They would know that these t-stations already existed, right?” He looked to Tasar, asking, “Did I get sucked into your t-network when I stepped onto that pad in Enduring Forge?”

“Ah. Well… Those are complicated questions.” Tasar said, “What happened when you stepped on that hexagon of deep sky silver is that your possibility was magnified and turned to mana and then transmitted, but the bounding runes on that pad were weakly made and too destructive, so you ended up following the normal paths that thick air mana takes to the Core. It’s a miracle you didn’t die, but you are on the Worldly Path, so unlikely events do tend to happen in your particular case. But you didn’t touch upon any ‘t-station network’, for there is no t-station network; not like you have with a Gate Network.”

“Hmm.”

There were a lot more questions to ask, But...

“So I understand that you try to keep runework out of the hands of people who would misuse it…” Erick asked, “Did you guys do anything to Enduring Forge, when I vanished?”

“That particular nascent t-station has since been removed from Enduring Forge because it was very incorrectly made. It’s my understanding that their head Rune Smith was in search of answers as to the death of her former husband due to that same pad, so after this development we tried to tell her what likely happened to the best of our abilities. Her husband likely followed the same path that you did to the Core, like many other people have before you. Perhaps Enduring Forge will write down what we told them so we won’t have to have this discussion with them again in another 25 years, but someone is always trying something to replicate the success of the t-stations, and they’re always failing, and usually with deaths happening to cement that failure.” Tasar said, “Rarely do we catch those people before they kill themselves.”

Tasar had probably seen a lot of people kill themselves due to improper Spatial Magic.

And yet, Erick had to ask, “Will you be giving Enduring Forge assistance with making a real t-station?”

“Not at all.” Tasar said, “This network is highly vulnerable to ingress, so it has to be commensurately more secure. We don’t really allow the public to use these things, either.” She glanced at another pair of people who had come down the hallway behind Erick and Tasar, to step on the t-station and vanish to parts unknown. “All these people are cleared for certain travel, but this location is very secure. It is our hope that you will eventually take the t-station near Yggdrasil and put it in a more secure location.” She added, “And also not replicate it on the Surface.”

Erick could have gotten mad about that.

But...

He took all his hateful thoughts about the regressive educational policies of the powers of this world and put them in a box, and then he buried that box in the far back of his mind, for now. Later, he would unearth that box and have a grand time yelling at someone who deserved it. Did Tasar deserve this yelling? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Did the Headmaster? Oh most certainly yes, but Erick would at least have a calm talk with that Old Dragon before the yelling began. Hopefully, Erick could hold it together when they visited Archmage’s Rest…

So Erick just breathed, and he prepared for whatever was about to happen by distracting himself, first.

He stood before the holographic map. It was a globe cut into a hundred layers, like an onion, and upon every layer there were separate, veiny networks of various colors; diagrams of individual t-station networks. The t-station in the room was connected to a golden-colored network that spanned the world. Other colored networks were located around other Geodes, leading to other lands. This particular t-station, if Erick was reading it right, did not connect to those other nodes, but it did connect to the larger t-stations inside Stratagold’s network.

All these people coming in and out of this node were likely coming from the major ports allied with Stratagold.

Erick asked, “Which one is Archmage’s Rest?”

Tasar gestured to the t-station, saying, “Archmage’s Rest is north of Stratagold in a place called Vibrant Falls. I think you’ll like it. Most people do.”

Erick accompanied Tasar onto the platform.

The world blipped black and green.

- - - -

The world came back and Erick stared outward at the beautiful lands ahead, for the t-station was positioned on an open spit of land. Tasar said something about moving off to the side, and Erick followed her lead, but also, he just stared.

The land was broken for a hundred kilometers up and down. It was like someone had opened up a hundred separate levels of the Underworld and played with the geology that made the world work, creating metropolis-sized spires of horizontal stone that reached out from shadowed spaces beyond sight, pointing toward the largest waterfall Erick had ever seen. A silent ocean poured down through the center of this massive space, blue and shining with light, while greenery grew on every kilometers-long spire. The magnitude of the space was hard to truly fathom, for Erick had seen wrecked land before, but this was on a whole other level; on a whole hundred levels.

And yet, it wasn’t wrecked at all. The land was cultivated, illuminated, with smaller waterfalls pouring down from higher spires to lower spires, creating lakes and streams that then poured down to the next level. Fishes flew in the air, alongside birds. Clouds were everywhere. Mist obscured much of the central space, for that central waterfall was kilometers across.

It wasn’t nearly as loud as he thought it should be. All Erick could really hear was a gentle wind and some far away river.

People lived here; a lot of people. Mansions and log cabins and stone castles and buildings with curled corner roofs and even a yurt, over there; people were everywhere, and yet each were on their own. A few small cities were scattered in the bright cavern, but mostly people lived on their own, with their own farms and their own caretakers. They weren’t all wrought out there, either; mostly, they were fleshy people.

Erick looked up, and saw even more. Spires reached out above him like the fingers of gods to touch the waterfall and tear off small pieces of it as it fell. He couldn’t see all the way up, and nor could he see all the way down. He wanted to explore, but also, he knew he could not. Not right now.

Erick rapidly proceeded through a dozen different emotions, and said, “The Underworld really is on a different level than the Surface, isn’t it. I truly had no idea— I mean. I knew. But I didn’t know.”

Tasar smiled at that. Then she gestured toward a building down the path, saying, “Let’s head to the main office.”

The building was rather simple in design but that simplicity was a lie to fool the people who couldn’t see the truth. With [True Sight] active, the 2 story townhouse that was their destination became merely the foyer for a grand castle that…

Erick recognized the form of Archmage’s Rest. He had seen it before.

“It’s the Grand Wizard’s Tower of the Core,” Erick said. He glanced around. A lot of things were hidden by illusions, from the guard station with its guards over there, to the [Familiar]s hiding in some of the branches of the trees; all of them watched Erick and Tasar as they strolled by. But there were no statues of Wizards anywhere. “Different, though.”

Tasar nodded as they walked, saying, “The Worldly Path moves the Walker in odd, replicating and yet escalating ways. I look forward to experiencing this phenomenon again when we walk the Path into other lands. It will be difficult, but nothing good is ever easy.”

“No Wizard statues is kinda bugging me, though. Why none of them?”

“Wizards are, as always, a threat. We do not venerate them.” Tasar said, “We are not the gods, with their Sights of the before-times, when they saw Wizards as more than the true monsters that they are.”

Erick left most of that discussion on the table and picked up, “Then why the recreation of the tower?”

“Ah.” Tasar said, “The Dark actually did that. Every time Archmage’s Rest has come together the Dark has changed the building around us to this form. Eventually we accepted it as the cost of doing business.”

Erick eyed Tasar. “… Really.”

Tasar smiled and laughed a little. “Truly! The Dark loves the Wizards —which is one more reason to add to the pile of why they cannot be allowed to openly live on Veird— and he hates us, and we hate the Wizards, so he tortures us with this sort of small [Strike].”

With every conversation Erick had about Wizards he felt more and more a pull toward the Dark, simply due to the desire to survive. He could practically see it now: Him, discovered as a Wizard, facing off against the wrought and every other normal society on Veird. With the shadelings protecting him, Yggdrasil would blow up crucial infrastructure across the entire world, to prevent an easy war against him, but he would still fail. Then Melemizargo would sweep in at the last second to secure Erick’s life, further alienating everyone…

Erick put those thoughts in a box and threw away the key, as he said, “I hope you can contain that anger if we do find a Wizard. I don’t come from your culture, so I have no basis for this hate, but anyone with half a Sight to see would see this hate of yours and run the other way or fight to the death.”

Tasar pulled back everything; her emotions, her self, her own hatred. She had accidentally let too much show, and now she was chastised and she didn’t like it. After another moment she hid her disgust at how easily she was seen through, and simply said, “You are correct. I will likely need to let you take forward position when we meet a Wizard, for I have met too many to see them as anything other than dangerous.”

Erick said, “I would hear of your other meetings later, if you are willing to tell.”

Tasar relaxed a fraction. “Of course. The people inside will have insights and histories into the Wizards of Veird as well, though we might not get that far today.”

They had reached the front door to the fake entrance. It opened for them automatically, revealing an entrance to a large foyer that Erick had already seen once, with people standing around the space like they were welcoming Erick and Tasar to a cake party at a food court at a mall. Riivo was there, standing right in front of an array of ten other people, only a few of which were made of metal. Erick recognized one of the other fleshy people as Ryul, the 20-something red harpy Force Mage he had met at Oceanside. The barely dressed bird-man looked excited to see Erick, and he was, for he was the first to start clapping.

In a flickering moment, everyone else started clapping, too, with Riivo giving a loud cheer, followed soon by everyone else in attendance. Lights, like minor fireworks, flashed in the air as illusory streamers fell down from on high, cementing the festive atmosphere. Behind the archmages there were more people stationed to the sides of the large food court-like space, some servers in the very back, but a lot of apprentices or otherwise in robes and such who joined in the cheer, shaking the building with their clapping, hollering mirth.

Erick stood stunned.

He had not seen any of this until he stepped through the front doors, and now that he was here it was too late to back out and simply run away. So he put on a happy face, and with any luck his facade of joy would turn real, soon enough.

Old man Riivo stepped forward, clapping his iron hands together and smiling wide. The crowd quieted a bit, and then all the way, as Riivo began to speak, “It is not often that we gather to celebrate the accomplishments of one person. Gathering in thanks happens even less, but it does happen! Today we have the honor to do both. Thank you, Archmage Erick Flatt, for all you’ve contributed to the advancement of magic on Veird, for all you have done against the Dark, and for all we hope you will one day achieve! Thank you!”

As one, everyone on this level and the level above, cheered, “Thank you!”

A band in the back of the room started playing a jaunty tune on violins and other assorted string instruments. Ophiel perked up on Erick’s shoulder, wanting to go play with the band, but Erick kept him near as Riivo further approached.

Riivo smiled at Erick, then spoke to Tasar, “I see it managed to stay a surprise.”

“He has a lot on his mind, so it is good that this happened sooner, rather than later.” Tasar nodded to Erick. “Congratulations and thank you, Erick. This is Riivo’s base of power, though, so I will go get some cake. Want me to get you a slice?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “And a beer.”

Tasar smirked, then nodded as she walked off.

Erick refused to be overly paranoid, though a large part of him wanted to calculate all the ways in which these people could kill him if they wanted, but as he scanned the eyes of everyone looking his way, as he saw the lack of magic among most of them, he knew he wasn’t in immediate danger. Or, at least, that’s what he wanted to believe. He really should have seen this sort of surprise coming. Did he miss any clues from Tasar? Did he—

Riivo smiled as he softly said, “Now you’re probably wondering how come you didn’t see this coming, as would anyone in your situation. But the fact is that Tasar told us you were coming here not twenty minutes ago and then we got everything ready rather quickly. You’d be surprised how easy it is to put together a party down here. This is only the night crew, though. More people will likely start showing up as the night progresses, but we archmages are a busy lot. I expect some people to come in and grab some cake and then scurry off, but you!” As though he was telling a joke, Riivo said, “You get to be the center of attention, and maybe we can even figure out some magic you desire, eh?”

Erick… Did feel better about the suddenness of the festivities, and now that he looked around, he saw a lot of people had gone right back to talking to whoever they were with, as though conversations had been interrupted and could now resume. A few people had gone back into their offices on the second floor, but many people in the audience were already attacking the various dishes set out for all. Some were very much waiting for their chance to speak to Erick, though.

“Thanks for the explanation, and for excusing my jumpiness.” Erick tried to return Riivo’s smile as he said, “It’s been a tough year.”

Light laughter came easily from the iron man. Riivo gestured back to the party, saying, “Come! Let me introduce you to some future companions. We don’t have every archmage in our little club, but everyone here has proven their character ten times over, and we all work to ensure that the world is a bit more stable today than it was yesterday.”

Erick joked, but not really, “Then you must all secretly hate me.”

A few true smiles. A few fake ones. A few non-reactions.

Riivo gave a true chuckle, then said, “Ah! It’s all about where we go from here, Erick, for only a fool would deny the benefits of forcing destruction and repentance upon the Dark Clergy.”

The gathered archmages relaxed at that—

Ryul the harpy took a half step forward and happily said, “From non-humble beginnings to this, and now going after [Gate]! I still owe you for that lesson with Particle Magic, Erick, but now I also owe you for clearing out all the Dark Sects that have plagued my homeland for centuries.”

Erick brightened. “I was wondering where you were over there.”

“My jobs take me to many places,” Ryul said.

Riivo spoke up, “Ryul joined us right out of Oceanside. Headmaster Kirginatharp recommended him, and he has proven to be a valued asset to us, and to the safety of the world. Some of the cleanest Force Magic I have seen in a long time.”

Ryul bowed just his head, then took a half step back.

Riivo explained, “In Archmage’s Rest, you get what you put in, and Ryul here is an example of those who decide to take the heaviest burdens to achieve access to our deepest libraries. He’s got a lot left to go, but he’s headed in the right direction.”

“Worse ways to catch up to everyone else than killing off monsters and protecting places here and there,” Ryul said.

“Quite right.” Riivo gestured to a pink-metal incani man on the far left, saying, “This is Devond, an archmage with a strict focus on Book Magic, and our head librarian in charge of the archives. He controls who gets to see what, so one must go through him to achieve the best known answers to whatever magics you might desire— But only with the correct permissions, of course.”

Devond bowed his head, remaining silent and impassive.

Riivo gestured to the human-shaped woman next in line, who was made of iridescent metal, saying, “This is Aisha. She is also one of our librarians, but her skills are in both Book Magic and Prognostication, with a focus on the past. While Devond is in charge of physical copies of the library, Aisha knows all the lore you could ever desire to know.”

Aisha gave a small smile and a smaller nod. “I’d like to talk to you about your pursuit of your Worldly Path when you get a chance, to help you arrive at the best possible end without the final step being into the Dark.”

“I would like that.” Erick said, “Thank you.”

Riivo nodded, then continued, “And here we have…”

There were a lot of names. A lot of fields of study to memorize, recall, and connect to other people in the crowds. Riivo took Erick through all of them. Soon enough, Tasar came back with a drink and Erick’s cake at the end of those introductions. All throughout, there was an undercurrent of working toward order and peace, while hammering down chaos and disruption. More than once, Erick got the hint that Riivo and the others wanted him to pull back his plans for the world, but Riivo knew none of those specific plans and Erick wasn’t going to have that conversation with these people at the moment.

Eventually the archmages had had their introductions, and either their requests for more talk later or their polite, yet silent exits from the conversation. Some people got up and left the party altogether, after they had made their meeting. Erick got the impression that some of these people appreciated him, but many just wished he would not be there, for whatever unsaid reason. Erick wasn’t going to press any of them for answers, though, because he did not need that sort of drama in his life.

Eventually, Riivo and Tasar guided Erick around the place, pointing out various services that he could use now that he was a member. Somehow, Erick had become a member without actually signing any paperwork, and he brought this up, to which Riivo just smiled and said that they could fill that out right now if he wanted. Or he could do it later. Whichever he decided, Erick was already guaranteed entrance down to seven star level of the library, but only years of safety and security would allow him to go deeper to 10 star and beyond. Erick asked about inquiry preparations. Riivo pointed out that they had an office for that, too. Offices to get approved for a t-station were over there; this was one of Tasar’s many work offices, actually. Places to hire out quests for people which you couldn’t be arsed to do yourself were located right over there; a branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, but small, and for archmages only.

Apprentice services. Resource requests from Stratagold. Prognostication and planning services turned out to be a whole floor of the building, where they often did outsourcing for whoever was vetted for hiring. Archmage services for hire were also an option, which is what Ryul was doing to climb the ranks. Three whole floors above that were the private offices of the various archmages in residence, for very few archmages wished to be on their own; it was dangerous out there. But mostly those offices were fronts; empty of substance and only used for [Familiar] speaking. Many of them had [Familiar]s of various sorts hanging out atop desks in those rooms, but the archmages themselves were mostly located at their houses in the lands of Vibrant Falls. If one needed a truly private meeting with any of the archmages here, they could go meet the archmage in person, outside of Archmage’s Rest.

“It truly is a beautiful land out there,” Erick said, as they passed a window.

“It is.” Riivo said, “Do you wish for a plot of land out there? I can secure that for you.”

“Oh. No. Thank you, though. Spur is home and I have plans for there, anyway.” Erick said, “I’m just surprised that a place like this exists at all, with Melemizargo being near all archmages, all the time.”

Riivo nodded sagely.

Tasar said, “The Dark God is a being of insane desires but he is not all powerful. We’ve scared him off ten thousand times since the birth of our people. The last time he tried something destructive here in Vibrant Falls we took a wing.”

“The Shades came by and stole that wing not five hours later, but I almost got a new cloak out of it.” Riivo said. “They avoid direct confrontations because they know they would lose… And sadly, we are guilty of the same fault.”

Erick scrunched his face. “But he turns wherever you gather into a Grand Wizard’s Tower?”

Riivo scowled for the first time in the night, saying, “He does that whenever I’m out of residence. Very annoying.”

“There is a bit of a disconnect, isn’t there.” Tasar shrugged. “He has power and he uses it in strange ways all the time. I have no explanation beyond his insanity.”

Riivo “I’m partial to the Evil God theory.”

“I haven’t heard that one.” Erick said, “But I have heard of Dark Gods before. They’re not the same?”

“No, they are not. Modern church teachings conflate many terms, but...” Riivo explained, “Gods require worship to remain in power, naturally granted to them by people who work under that god’s auspices or direction, but not all worship is the same. Wishing for a god not to harm, and then that god not harming, thus fulfilling that wish, is about the same as wishing for a god to help, and then that god helping. In this way, by simply not harming, the Dark God passively accumulates half of all worship, while actual desire for help is fulfilled by every other god out there, depending on individual desire. There is a bit of overlap in some areas, though, like with Sininindi and people desiring for storms not to harm their experiences on the ocean, or with Sumtir taking worship from both sides of battle when both sides think they are in the right.” Riivo said, “People are the base cause of godly occurrence, but since all of the actually-Evil gods failed to make it to Veird in the Sundering, and since people still produce both evil and good, the Dark God took on the Evil half of worship. Before that he was just neutral, and Dark, but now he is unavoidably Evil.”

Erick paused. “I’ve heard some of that before. But not quite so… succinct.”

Tasar held a gentle smile, as she said, “So very blasphemous, too.”

Erick rapidly added, “And I never heard that as an explanation for Melemizargo’s insanity.”

“It’s quite possible he’s a truly neutral god,” Riivo said, “But because people will always produce Good and Evil worship, that Evil had to go somewhere so it went into him. Doesn’t change anything, but it’s good to know what one is dealing with when one has to do dealings.”

Erick was reminded… “So killing all the Clergy was never the way to actually de-power Melemizargo, was it.”

“It’s made a difference.” Riivo said, “That, or maybe some of his insanity is going away, for real. But if the insanity is a problem of him soaking in the Evil of the world, then I dare say that he is likely finally acclimating to the Evil, and that is something to truly fear.”

Erick had a lot of thoughts in quick succession, then he asked the important question, “Does mana actually need to have an ‘evil’ force in it to be balanced? Or is that simply your interpretation of events and situations? Is there such a thing as ‘Elemental Evil’?”

Riivo almost spoke, but—

Tasar smiled wider. “Ah ha! And this is why Riivo’s idea is blasphemous.” She happily said to the iron man, “There is no Elemental Evil. While there is some valid claim between people praying for gods to turn to them a Sightless eye, and the rise of Dark gods, it is simply that; a claim, and likely only half the truth. A god only actually turns Dark when their worshipers turn to the Dark, but we're not sure what that actually means except for corruption in the church.” She turned to Erick, saying, “There was a third type of worship pre-Sundering; sacrificial worship.” She said to Riivo, “This ‘sacrificial worship’ was erased in the Script; it no longer works. If there were ever any truth to this idea of ‘Elemental Evil’ it was in the idea of sacrificial worship, and it, along with all the Evil Gods, did not survive the Sundering.”

Riivo almost said something, but he saw Erick had a question.

“Is that why there haven’t been any gods born since the Sundering?” Erick asked, “The natural trio of worshiping methods were permanently disrupted?”

Riivo almost said something again, but he paused.

Tasar glanced at Erick a bit. “No one really knows.”

Riivo said, “Aisha would be the one to ask about that, but before we rejoin the party, do you have any smaller questions of magic? I would like to reward you with something for all you’ve done for the world, and for what you will continue to do. A specific spell that you’re having trouble with, perhaps? I would like to help you make it, and in doing so enlighten you as to how Archmage’s Rest works.”

Erick mentally marked that something weird had just happened with their avoidance of god talk, then went with the flow, saying, “I was wondering about one specific magic. Are there any [Personal Ward]s of perfect defense? I was moving around with Nirzir Void Song of Eralis in Songli for a little while, as I’m sure you know, and she’s working on a spell of perfect defense. Is such a thing actually possible for fleshy people?”

“Oh oh oh! Now that is a very, very complicated question.” Riivo chuckled, saying, “Something smaller, perhaps?”

“Very difficult.” Tasar asked, “Do you have a starting point, Erick?”

“Well. My daughter has Perfected Body and Scion of Balance, so she was thinking of a [Bloody Personal Ward] with a high multiplier, allowing her to take a portion of damage as physical but letting her [Ward] be three or four times as large. Will that actually work?”

Riivo was already shaking his head before Erick even finished.

But it was Tasar who said, “Don’t let your daughter do that. If she already has a [Bloody Personal Ward] you still have twenty years to get her to stop, but she needs to figure out another way to defend herself as soon as she can.”

Erick’s skin felt suddenly cold. “Ah.”

“Tasar is quite right.” Riivo said, “This method of a large multiplier for [Personal Ward] at the cost of full coverage is possible through other means, though. You could simply have her do that; a [Personal Ward] that only covers 75% or 50% of damage taken or whatever percentage of damage she is comfortable with taking. With the ability for most frontliners to have a [Rejuvenation] constantly restoring their Health the whole time they’re using that Health in battle, this might be the best option to ensure longevity in a [Personal Ward]. But in addition to that, I would suggest something like a [Gloom Ward] which can mitigate a small percentage of damage taken, or a true [Shadow Ward], but Shadow Magics do tend to make one look like an enemy; her choice, I would say. A [Metal Ward] would be useful if she has a metallic form, but if she does not then she won’t gain much benefit from that. It’s hard to say without knowing more about her capabilities, and you shouldn’t tell those to anyone; not even me.”

Erick thought for a moment, then asked, “Would you have any suggestions for me, with regards to a new [Personal Ward]?”

Riivo hummed a little as he thought.

Tasar said, “Don’t go for anything fancy with a [Personal Ward]; no Esoteric Elements, and certainly no Blood Magic. All you need is a simple absolute damage mitigation [Personal Ward]. Anything above 100 would be acceptable, and this can be achieved through normal Force Magic integration.”

Riivo countered, “You say that because you’re adamantium.”

Erick was a bit lost.

“My methods work for others, too,” Tasar strongly said, and then she calmly added, “The individual numbers might need adjustment, but Erick has Constitution, so he might be nearly as difficult to damage as— Well. Maybe not as difficult as adamantium, but at least as solid as any normal metal.”

Riivo didn’t look convinced. “I don’t like the idea of relying on any of these New Stats for anything. They’re too new. Too untested. Such methodology would open him up to way too many threats, especially without Scion of Balance. Even the smallest plinking of [Soul Burn] and any proper [Decay] magic would—” He said to Erick, “You need all the Health you can get. You shouldn’t use any [Personal Ward] method that leaves you open to taking Health damage at all.”

Erick asked, “Do either of you have a good example of the type of [Ward] you’re talking about? I’ve never heard of absolute damage mitigation before now.”

Riivo spoke to Erick, but he was mainly speaking to Tasar, “It’s not used outside of specific circumstances, like if you’re wrought and have tried and tested natural defenses.”

Tasar simply handed Erick a blue box, saying, “This is what I use.”

Steadfast Ward, instant, self, 5000 mana

Enact a personal ward of absolute defense, preventing 250 damage from all outside sources. Lasts 24 hours.

Erick’s eyes went wide. Then he thought, and guessed, “Against every attack? After all natural defenses? Is that what this is?—”

Oh.

Sitnakov must have had something like this… All wrought had something like this? Unless it didn’t work how Erick thought it would work. His own [Personal Ward] took all damage first, while, just like Constitution, [Defend] did not work until his [Personal Ward] was gone.

Tasar said, “It’s a complicated interaction if you make the spell wrong, for a properly made [Steadfast] ward needs to be made to take all your natural defenses into account, first, and this is not how [Personal Ward]s work. It doesn’t help that you won’t know if you’ve made the good version of [Steadfast Ward] until you do some testing on your own.” Tasar said, “But if you make it right, natural mitigation and various abilities like [Defend] come into play first, which means a 10,000 damage [Fireball] might become 1000 points of damage, which is then mitigated to 900, but 100,000 damage from 100 [Force Bolt]s, each worth 1000 damage, would be fully mitigated.”

Riivo countered Tasar’s good words with, “Absolute damage [Personal Ward]s are terrible against Decay spellwork, giving you less than a tenth of the numbers on the box against those spells. Any damage over time effects. And you can’t use two [Personal Ward]s at once without being a Warder.”

Tasar said, “But you can [Cleanse] away most [Decay] spells, and if you can’t do that then Elemental Bodying them away works well enough.”

Riivo said, “Some damage over time magics burrow into the person, preventing...”

Tasar countered Riivo again, and then Riivo countered her right back, their conversation turning spirited and exact, with examples of the pros and cons of [Steadfast Ward].

But the more he heard, the more Erick became enamored with the idea of absolute mitigation. He was at theoretically 87% damage reduction because of Constitution, therefore a [Personal Ward] of this type might be fantastic. His Constitution mitigation was only ‘theoretical’, though, because like Riivo said, these New Stats were not wholly what they appeared to be. Perhaps he was closer to 65% or 75% damage reduction. It was something to experiment with, anyway; more testing was required.

Erick interrupted the back and forth between the two metal archmages, asking, “Can you apply these ideas in area [Ward]s, too? I might not be able to use this, but Yggdrasil certainly can. Also, is this 250 number the best you can do? What about a variable mana modifier?”

Yggdrasil bounced on Erick’s shoulder upon hearing his name. Erick sent the big guy some nice, indistinct feelings— And then he paid attention to Ophiel, too, giving the little guy a pat before he could fluff up at not being included in the conversation.

“Ah!” Riivo’s face lit up. “Yggdrasil should certainly have this sort of spell. That is a marvelous idea.”

Tasar smiled, too. “Yes it is a good idea, and yes he should.”

“I had not considered— No bother.” Riivo waved a dismissive hand, then said, “Let us rejoin the party and let the mechanisms of Archmage’s Rest help you to learn this magic. I think Ryul made one of these worth 310 absolute damage mitigation and an [Area Ward] worth 50.”

Tasar said, “Ryul is a Force Mage, though, so results will vary.”

“Yes, yes.” Riivo led the way back toward the party, saying, “Achieving a Variable modifier to this particular magic would likely require Blood Magic, so you don’t want to do that. This is a spell you will have active at all times, after all.”

Erick walked beside the two wrought, saying, “I’m sure immortal views on magic are longer term than most mortals will ever live, but surely there is room for emergency use for many dangerous magics?”

Tasar fully stopped for a short moment. She resumed walking quickly enough, saying, “Best practices are still best practices.”

Riivo’s steps stuttered only the barest fraction as he smoothly said, “I agree with Tasar, and I disagree with you, Erick. There is no use for improperly made magic except as a learning tool toward more perfect spellwork. At the same time, perfection is never truly attainable, but it is something one should aim toward. Only the most learned Blood Mage should ever use their magic on themselves.”

“What about anti-Blood Magic?” Erick asked, suddenly conscious of the anti-Blood Magic charm on his wrist.

“That is fine.” Riivo said, “Anti-Blood Magic is a denial of certain spellforms, whereas Blood Magic is the enactment of those spellforms upon a body; the first usually causes no issues for it is an interaction between magics, while the second can lead to many problems. Now, truly bad anti-Blood Magic could lead to malformed Blood Magic affecting you in horrible ways, but those malformed effects can usually be [Cleanse]d away, unlike the truly insidious Blood Magic that cannot be [Cleanse]d. And besides that, all Blood Magic you want working on your body is something you wouldn’t want to [Ward] against in the first place.” He added, “There is a true solution to bad Blood Magic, though, but unless you want to pledge fealty to Aloethag, the Bloody Goddess, then you should take care what sort of Blood Magic you choose to use.”

That all tracked with what Erick knew.

Soon they were back at the party, which Erick recognized was more like he was being paraded around as their newest conquest, and less like he was his own person, choosing to be in this space. It was a little pushy on Riivo’s part, but he and the rest of Archmage’s Rest were doing what they needed to do to ensure that Erick threw in with them. It’s not like Erick wasn’t getting any benefits out of this arrangement, either. He probably would sign the paperwork making him an official member either at the end of this party, or perhaps tomorrow.

Riivo called the party to order and explained that there was a small spell that Erick wanted to work on, based on [Steadfast Ward]. He specifically called on the harpy Ryul, who looked delighted to be included, and then on a Blood Archmage named Juris, who looked interested but reserved. Juris was a human man of nearly black skin from the Greensoil Republic. Erick was a bit wary of him due to his stated allegiances, but he seemed personable enough. And then Riivo asked for volunteers. Two more people chose to participate; the celesteel prognosticator/historian Aisha, who had some sort of Exalted Magic going on with her, and an owl shifter human woman Warder from Eidolon, named Boralia, who wore an owl mask that did not cover her mouth. Erick doubted he would get to know them all more than in an acquaintance sort of way, but that was no reason not to be personable himself. He tried, anyway; mostly, he shoved his paranoia down as far as it would go and went with the flow.

In a completely normal way that mirrored Erick’s time at Oceanside when he gave his own talk of Particle Magic, Riivo, Erick, Tasar, Ryul, and the three others, moved to a large meeting room to the side of the main floor. Some party workers or otherwise normal employees followed behind, wheeling in some treats on carts into the meeting room, before stepping back out.

Once it was just archmages, Riivo cast some anti-Sight spells across the room, then began summoning some chalkboards. Words started to appear on the boards as he happily spoke of magic, saying, “[Steadfast Ward]s are [Ward]s which are useful in certain situations, but since only a Warder can have two [Personal Ward]s at once, their [Personal Ward] use is mostly relegated to certain special situations. Every archmage should know of this magic, though, because there are many times when absolute defense is more useful than a gradually wearing down [Personal Ward]…”

As Riivo spoke his enthusiastic joy spread to others. Five minutes later he was done with his overview and asked if Aisha could take over. The celesteel human wrought happily stepped to the front of the room and began giving a small lecture on history.

Aisha began, “Best practices for [Steadfast Ward]s are probably exactly what you would expect; highly useful in cases of plentiful, small damage coming your way. Historically, the spell came from mages in the Geodes, because wrought are made of metal and therefore have high damage thresholds. Certain [Polymorph] forms greatly benefit from a [Steadfast Ward], but for the vast majority of people a [Steadfast Ward] is suboptimal.” She asked Erick, “Which makes me wonder why this spell? What are you going for?”

It was Erick’s turn to speak, then. As everyone else watched, Erick stood, and said, “For Yggdrasil, mainly, but I do want to experiment with it myself, if only to make a [Personal Ward] that allows me to make use of [Defend] beyond the anti-kill aspects of that skill.” He explained, “My original question posed to Riivo and Tasar was asking after a [Bloody Personal Ward] for my daughter—” He glanced to Juris, the Blood Mage, as he said, “My Polymage daughter has Perfected Body. I was led to believe, before coming here, that Perfected Body made one immune to the harmful effects of Blood Magic, and the high multiplier for Blood Magic made the spell attractive in certain ways. The conversation transitioned from there.” He sat back down.

Aisha took her seat, saying, “Then there’s no need to go into too much history.”

“Quite right.” Riivo took his seat, too, saying, “Let’s go for a round of discussion, then. Juris?”

Without standing, Juris spoke, “The Class Ability for Perfected Body is one of the goals of all learned Blood Mages, but while it does prevent the majority of side effects from many Blood spells, one should not ever wear Blood Magic around all the time, like one does with a [Personal Ward]. The time table for such degradation is decades for mortals and centuries for immortals. But even so, a [Bloody Personal Ward] with a high multiplier is a good idea if you are comfortable with making pacts with Aloethag, or with the originally intended use of [Polymorph]. Both methods remove potential long term [Bloody Personal Ward] concerns.”

Erick asked, “What does a pact with Aloethag look like?”

Juris said, “Usually a million Health spilled in her name unless you’ve done that a few times already. Aisha would know more of that than I.”

The room turned toward Aisha.

Aisha said, “A million Health is her usual demand but there are side effects of being automatically included in the Red Dream, which can…”

The conversation shifted from one person to the next, and each time it moved, Erick felt a little less worried. None of the people here were jumpy. All of the people back in the main rooms were chatting away, taking their cake or their drinks and sitting around, or walking back to their offices to eat while they worked. It was very much an ‘office party’ atmosphere, and Erick kinda liked it. It was very, very magical, but it was also rather mundane.

He liked that the conversation around [Steadfast Ward] was a great way to get to know his fellow archmages, too. Except…

Except Erick realized that he was a very terrible liar. He knew this already, and while he could lie sometimes, he could not lie well. And he had fucked up.

Juris, the Blood Mage, who knew all about Perfected Body, had Perfected Body himself. The veins in his arms were near mirrors of each other, while his eyes and ears were perfectly symmetrical. Unblemished skin! Zero scars! And though Juris’s body was slightly less muscular than Erick’s, Erick’s own Perfected Body was easy enough to see for anyone with any Sight to them at all. Erick had been walking around with his Perfected Body for a while without anyone questioning him, but talking about how Jane had Perfected Body like he didn’t was just a bridge too far.

Like.

Hur, dur. I don’t have Perfected Body, no sir!

Gah!

It was suspicious, is what it was.

And Erick had fucked up.

He was not a good liar. Never had been. Never would be. This boded badly for keeping his Wizardly nature under wraps, but, maybe if Erick got out of here fast enough, he could avoid the inquisi—

There was no avoiding the inquisition. Inquisitor Kromolok had probably recognized Erick’s Perfected Body the second they saw each other, but… Meh. Kromolok was a Mind Mage and probably under normal Mind Mage protocol. Even if he did have a certain amount of leeway due to being the leader of the Forgotten Campaigns, Kromolok hadn’t outed Erick yet…

What was more concerning was that Tasar and Sitnakov, and now all these other people, saw Erick trying to act like he didn’t have Perfected Body. Well. Maybe he had just the right amount of doubt, there. It was likely public knowledge that Jane had Perfected Body, too. So…

Meh.

… Whatever!

Like. These people were saying unsaid things and poking at each other with hidden-dagger questions, too. They were mostly leaving him alone, even though this conversation was about magic he was going after. Perhaps he had given them enough—

Bah.

Moving right along.

Ryul eventually got to speak but it was after everyone else; he was the youngest there at 35, though, so this much was partially understandable. While everyone else had spoken of theory and idea and best practices (and tried to extract from everyone else every hidden bit of knowledge they could, without directly extracting knowledge; Juris seemed to be the largest offender of them all, though. Tasar, Ryul, and Aisha were the least guilty of this), it was Ryul who took over actually explaining how [Steadfast Ward] worked. And he was good.

Ryul got right in the zone, enthusiastically speaking of his field of expertise, connecting Force Magic and Shaping in ways that Erick hadn’t truly considered before. The harpy man was hungry for advancement.

… Looking at Ryul, Erick honestly felt a bit bad that he was so suspicious of everyone here, and of Archmage’s Rest as a whole. Like, yes, there were a lot of unsaid plots and plans happening with every turn of phrase, but on the surface, this was a lot of real, hard information about magic. And here was Ryul, dipping his toes into at least two archmage societies —both Oceanside and here— and yet all Erick could feel for the moment was dread.

But at the same time, not a single person called him out for having Perfected Body and pretending not to. Erick was conflicted. Paranoid, yeah, but mostly conflicted.

As Ryul finished his explanations, which only took fifteen minutes and ended up with three chalkboards full of arcane notation and five diagrams of how the body worked under Steadfast magic, Ryul moved across his work, explaining it more succinctly, “Whereas every body has some innate absolute damage reduction on the scale between 1% of your Health or 5 Health, [Steadfast Ward] is all about a strengthening that natural resistance by stringing ethereal Force under the skin and through the bones and muscle. It is this Shaping that requires the most precision to achieve the greatest effect for a [Personal Ward], but it is still possible to achieve a lesser Steadfast Effect when stringing this magic into a wide scale [Area Ward]. But for all aspects of this spell, to start at the beginning, you must use an ablation effect, which you have strongly aligned with the skin, and it must be ethereal, too, for actual [Force Wall]s or any other Force effect in your working could create a spell that simply traps people inside a skin-tight bubble which could lead to death from asphyxiation or wrong placement on a battlefield.” Ryul looked to Erick, saying, “In this way, [Steadfast Ward] works wonders against small damages, and will allow [Defend] and other mitigation methods to function, dropping the threat of a thousand-needle attack down to nothing. The drawback of this is that the larger attacks are more dangerous.”

Riivo spoke first, saying, “A wonderful explanation, Ryul! You have done well today. Thank you for your expertise. Anyone else have anything to add?”

The owl shifter Warder from Eidolon, Boralia, spoke, “I use one of these in addition to my [Personal Ward]. I’ve gone about it a bit differently.”

Ryul gestured toward the boards as he went back to his chair. “I would love to hear your methodology.”

Boralia got up and went to the chalkboards.

The group of archmages spoke for an hour more, leaving Erick with a lot to think about, and many thanks for all of them.

Back in the main room Erick spoke to each of them individually a bit more, as well as some newcomers who showed up late. Ryul spoke of how he hoped his lesson was well received, and Erick told him it was, while Juris hinted even more at knowing that Erick had Perfected Body. No one else was as overt with poking through Erick’s ‘lies’, though; probably because they didn’t feel the need. Almost everyone noticed Juris poking holes and they universally agreed it was bad form, but no one said anything against the human from Greensoil, either.

Erick capped the night off with signing the paperwork to join Archmage’s Rest as an official member.

There was a bit more celebration after that, but most people began to move on.

- - -

An hour later it was just Erick, Tasar, and Riivo in the main room. Much of the food had been eaten or squirreled away into the offices around the tower since every non-archmage, and even a few archmages like Ryul, had work to do. Work continued as the world continued to turn.

At the end, Erick said to Riivo, “Thank you for the invitation. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

“Just go at your own pace, Erick.” Speaking like a kindly old man, Riivo said, “You’ve been through a lot. You’ve done more than most ever would, causing a lot of other people to look up to you. Just glance at Ryul, running around trying to catch up. He’s not the only one.” He said, “But I’ve seen bonfires sputter and fail more often than you will ever know, and you are a bonfire, Erick. The brightest one this world may see for a long, long time. So go at your own pace, okay? You have earned your rest. We’re a support structure for archmages in many more ways than simply being a community, so drop by any time, okay?”

Erick smiled softly. “Thanks.”

“I mean it now!” Riivo smiled as he said, “Come by anytime, for any need. We’ve got lots of books on Wizards, too; more than the few you’ve scavenged from the Core. Aisha wants to talk to you about all that stuff, too.”

“… Yeah. I’ll need to do that, I suppose.”

There were a few more words, but the night was over.

Erick and Tasar departed.

Soon, they were back at the t-station on the beach in Yggdrasil’s cavern.

Erick said, “I didn’t get to ask too much about the approval process for giving magic to the rest of the world, but they seemed nice. I’ll have to do that some other day, too. Thanks for accompanying me, Tasar.”

Tasar smirked a little, saying, “Thank you for accepting my accompaniment. Were you interested in doing anything else today?”

“I’d like to speak to a few more emergency inquiry preparatory committees, but it was suggested to me that I take Bright Tea before the inquiry.” Erick asked, “Is there any word on when either event has to happen? Are you to be my counsel for either?”

“I will be there for both events, and I would like to discuss preparations as well. As for the events themselves they will happen whenever you want it to happen. Bright Tea is a bi-weekly event. You can attend any one you wish to attend. The next one is in 3 days, though.”

Erick nodded. “Then… Let’s go speak to some EIPCs. Oh. Your mother volunteered her services for that, too.”

Tasar suddenly stood straight, almost freezing as she stared at Erick. Then she softened, but only the smallest bit. “She did?”

“… Is that odd?”

“Nope! Not at all.” Tasar glanced backward, down the beach to the tunnel that led to the embassy. Then she turned back to the t-station not four meters away. She took a step to the gold and platinum platform, saying, “I’m going to go on ahead and speak to my mother before you show. Uh. Nothing bad.” She stared at Erick a bit, then she stepped on the platform and vanished in a blip of black-green light.

Erick stood alone on the beach.

… He went back to Yggdrasil, had another meal of [Renew] in his Other Form, then he went back to the beach and mosied toward the embassy, to speak to some EIPCs. He found several willing to talk to him, so he tentatively set some meetings with them before heading upstairs to Tasar’s room, to speak to her and her mother, Otaliya.

Arriving back at Tasar’s office, Erick saw Tasar on one side of the room acting like nothing was wrong while Otaliya stood on the other side, and nothing was wrong. The table was gone and a tea cup was in chips in a corner of the room and some wooden splinters were in the hallway, and the near history of the manasphere was blank, but nothing obvious was wrong.

Otaliya simply smiled, moving calmly as she gestured to the door Erick had come in through, saying, “Shall we talk downstairs with the other EIPCs?”

Erick ignored Tasar giving her mother a death glare, and said to Otaliya, “I just spoke to a few and set up some meetings, but I’m sure they’d love to talk now. So sure. Let’s go.”

Erick walked out of the room first.

Otaliya stared at the doorway for a long moment, then she breathed deep and walked through, acting like nothing was wrong.

But Tasar’s eyes bugged out as her mother entered the hallway. For a long moment Tasar did nothing. Then she rushed out to follow. She didn’t shut the door behind her, though, because the door was missing. Even the hinges were gone from their settings in the stone. Erick had no idea what happened to the door either, because the history of the manasphere had also been erased from the hallway.