Ar'Kendrithyst

The day dawned. Breakfast was had. Over strawberry pancakes, Erick asked after the schedule of events for the day. Apparently nothing was happening till at least 9 am, which meant that Erick had about two hours to get ready, since it would take half an hour to actually arrive at the Rotunda.

“Are there rooms where I can practice magic?” Erick asked, “And if my own people are going to come here, then how is that going to work?”

Fairy Moon said, “Invitations have been bequeathed to all peoples named in last night’s listing. Actual arrangements will likely take time.”

“… Uh. I was imagining I would have to write some letters. I don’t see them believing you— You’re not just going to kidnap them, are you?”

Fairy Moon waved him off, saying, “Letters would work. I suppose. Anyway! After today’s talking and if no untoward unknowns come about, I will likely begin to bequeath to you a layer of your own lavishing here in Ar’Cosmos. It will be blank, for it will belong to your House Benevolence. It will be the birthplace ground of your very own [Gate], too, if you have the time and temerity for such a careful creation.”

So she was going to ignore the ‘kidnap them’ thing, eh?

Fine.

Erick moved on to the bomb Fairy Moon had just dropped. “So…” He asked, “You’re going to help me make [Gate]? This could happen today?”

“We are at the threshold of a truly new natural order.” Fairy Moon said, “Even if you should use this magic to run from me and never return, I wish for you to be able to run from everyone else, as well.” She shrugged. “You’ve basically brought yourself to the brink, anyway, what with Benevolence being your own true creation. You could do the rest yourself, or I could push you over, if you’re okay with that willfulness?”

Erick paused again as his thoughts went wild.

First, he realized that he needed the capability to run, if/when he needed to.

He wanted to run from Fairy Moon, and from Ar’Cosmos, and he wanted to go back to Jane, and then take her with him as he ran off to some far corner of the world where no one could find him. The very second he had that thought, he had another thought in tandem; he could never hide, not really. Not from the people who could find him. Not from the gods, or from the Mind Mages.

He could run from Fairy Moon, though, and knowing that she was more than simply immortal, running was the only way to get out of her power. At the same time, though, he had thought he was done with being afraid of Fairy Moon’s warnings and power. And at the same time as that, Erick knew he would never truly be over her kidnapping and imprisoning him, and he would never be over his own almost-murder of Maid Maria.

And then came the anger. From multiple directions.

Erick had only wanted to get some space where he could practice magic. Why did Fairy Moon need to make the morning even more complicated than it already was? [Gate]? NOW? Really! Why not later? There was just too much going on to do more than small experiments.

But...

[Gate] right now would be good—

But wait. Fairy Moon had asked if he was okay with doing this now—

Erick had another thought, from a completely different direction. Why was he angry? At the overload of events? Mostly, yes, but he had had stressful days before and he didn’t go straight to anger as he had right now. Admittedly, Fairy Moon stressed him out quite a lot, but...

Wait.

Was his core breaking down again?

Erick switched to his Other Self.

Benevolence lightning filled his veins while his core held right beside his heart. His core was mostly fine, but it looked… or rather it seemed, perhaps? A bit… murky? Barely any difference at all, but, yup. Now that Erick saw it, he knew where his unusual anger had come from. His core was suffering from normal degradation. It had been about a day since he last accreted, so this sort of degradation was right on schedule according to the books, but he had expected days of clarity between accretions. Not a single day. In truth, his anger was barely anything at all, but the sudden spike of that emotion that had sucker punched him.

And his core needed some accretion. Not a lot. But he needed some, for sure.

Erick settled for a [Renew], for now, targeting himself internally.

Anger faded.

His core cleared.

Rationality resumed.

Fairy Moon just watched Erick go through his emotional rollercoaster over the course of three seconds.

Erick blinked long, centering himself as he decided to ask the most prudent question he thought he could; a question that had been weighing on his mind about [Gate] for a long time. Such a question required some setting, though. Erick said, “From my understanding, Ar’Cosmos is inside the mana; inside what we deem as ‘Fae Magic’, specifically. It seems like this land is inside another dimension. But the Dimensional Ban prevents Dimensional Magic. This Ban prevents anyone from actually accessing the Plane of Fire, for example; that Plane is trapped behind the Script. This same fact is true for the Plane of Water, or Stone, or whatever. But this ‘Plane of Fae’ is different. You can access this land. It seems like you have created Rift Magic that allows someone to actually go into the mana, instead of ‘opening the mana’ and letting mana out into reality, which is how Rift Magic usually works. It seems like [Gate] magic is some Spatial Magic ideas implanted inside Fae Magic, or maybe something else; I am not sure.” Erick asked his question, “So what is going on there? Is Fae Magic simply different from all the rest? Is Fae Magic able to ‘trick’ its way around the Dimensional Ban? Or is Fae Magic the condensation of all life in the mana into one single Element, and thus all of the ability to access the other Planes does not exist, because Elemental Fae is the only Element that can actually be lived in? Is it possible to actually access and ‘live inside’ Elemental Air, for example?” Erick asked, “Or am I misunderstanding something more fundamental?”

All while Erick spoke, Fairy Moon lightly eyed him, her pink and green eyes sparkling a little as he explained what he thought he knew. Even before he finished, though, Erick could tell that he had gotten something very, very wrong, but not in a dangerous way; in a way that made Fairy Moon gain an edge to her smirk.

Erick was unsure how he felt about that edge.

Fairy Moon said, “You have a misconception and misunderstandings aplenty, but only one matters in this magic. Here now, is the true nature of the Dimensional Ban—”

She opened her mouth.

She spoke.

The words did not reach Erick’s ears.

He could not read her lips.

His crystal glass, filled with orange juice, a specialty asked for from Maid Maria, shattered. Orange juice splattered across the table. Fairy Moon’s ceramic plate cracked in half, spilling syrup. Blood fell from Erick’s ears and eyes as he tasted copper.

And Fairy Moon kept explaining.

Maid Maria, sitting across the table, winced alongside Erick. She bled from her ears, too.

Fairy Moon finished. She sighed, then gave a small smile. “Everyone thinks they know what the Dimensional Ban is about, but they know not of that most major of Bans. They conflate causes and explain away effects. The Truth is not that dangerous by my reasoned reckoning, but it was decided long ago to lock that particular magic away. The lesser effects of that enactment are the nuances you see with the nature of Rift Magic and otherwise, but the true nature of Rift Magic is that most mages aren’t actually capable of true Rift Magic.” She shrugged. “You don’t need to know the Truth of the Dimensional Ban to make [Gate]. You possess all the pieces. Now you must merely put those pieces in place.”

Erick rubbed at his sore ears while Maid Maria got up, muttering about cleaning. While he mulled over Fairy Moon’s words, Maria cleared and then cleaned the table, and then proceeded to set out a replacement breakfast, since the original one had shards of ceramic in them.

Erick asked what he felt was the proper followup, “What pieces do I have?”

Fairy Moon listed, “An acute attunement to an Element, deeper and denser than most people can manage, so deep that the boundary between oneself and the other is less than a shift in stance. Knowledge of magic and mana. Knowledge of life and living. The acumen to accumulate it all into a gathering that grows. And finally, a fair fraction of Wizardry to will toward that supreme, singular step.” She said, “For most, the Wizardry comes from without. But for you, Benevolence will respond to your wishes most of all, and so! Go make [Gate] if you yearn for that most famous of freedoms.” She warned, “The second you do, though, you will be outside the bounds of Ar’Cosmos. I can’t protect you past here.”

Erick had a sudden bounty of questions, but he knew that he wouldn’t get to ask all of them before events started happening again, so he focused on the largest ones, to make sure he was understanding Fairy Moon correctly, and to make sure that he was understanding the very nature of mana correctly.

First: everyone’s mana was different.

It was the [Renew] problem.

While this nuance of the Old Cosmology remained in this New Cosmology, some mana had been taken by the Script and designated as ‘Fire’ or ‘Water’ or, in Fairy Moon’s case, ‘Fae’. All others were discarded or folded into the larger mana archetype which best suited it. Erick had originally thought that Fae was the only one that had been crushed down to size. But…

Erick asked, “All Elemental Fire, for example, used to be many different types of mana?”

“Yes,” Fairy Moon said, smiling and relieved beyond measure. She was happy Erick was actually understanding her, and making the right connections.

“Did people [Gate] through Elemental Fire?”

Happily, Fairy Moon said, “There were never many people who [Gate]d through Fire, but some people were always Like That. There’s some in every society.”

Okay.

Okay.

Erick began, “The Grand Translation… Made it so that most people could never access the Elemental Planes... And so most people were never in-tune enough with what had been designated ‘Fire’, by the Script? [Gate] is truly, actually, Dimensional Magic? But through the elements?”

“Correct!” Fairy Moon added, “Even now, the people who can find purchase on the Elements envisioned by the Script are so scarce you might have an easier time living through telling Melemizargo to give up his godly power.”

Erick felt floored. He asked, “[Gate] is always out of the reach of people because of the same different-mana problem that I’ve begun to solve through [Renew]?”

Fairy Moon nodded, saying, “And thus we arrive at the truest trick to [Gate]; that Wizardry can alter the unalterable, and sometimes all the largest magics require is a slight shift in one’s own mana, to better connect with what is already out there.” She added, “Though I caution against attempting to anchor inside Elemental Fire, or anything else so acidic to life.”

It all clicked.

[Gate] suddenly made sense.

And only because Erick had been believing a lie this whole time. [Gate] was dimensional magic, but obviously of a different sort. Actual Dimensional Magic was still Banned by the Script, for actual Dimensional Magic did not mean what Erick thought it had meant. The Dimensional Ban was actually a hole carved in the Script; a prevention of the highest sort—

Erick tried to guess at the problem, saying, “The Dimensional Ban prevents opening a way back to the Old Cosmology— No. That’s not it. I can say these words and you can hear them.”

Fairy Moon nodded, and then she tried to speak, but Silence poured through her throat—

“Okay. Enough.” Erick waved her off, saying, “Enough.”

Fairy Moon stopped, and nodded.

Erick tried to think, but it was hard, for a sudden bout of anger rocked out through his entire body. That anger had nothing to do with his core, for his core was fine; this was merely true anger.

“Then what the fuck does the Dimensional Ban do?!”

Fairy Moon smirked, then opened her mouth and Silence poured—

“Okay okay!” Erick touched his bleeding ears again, interrupting Fairy Moon as he said, “That’s okay. I don’t need to know.” He cut into his fresh pancake, saying, “No need to break breakfast again.”

Fairy Moon giggled a little. “It would be rude to ruin it again.” She happily said to Maid Maria, “It is a wonderful repast, my Maid Maria.”

Maria merely nodded. The three of them resumed eating.

Erick asked a few small questions during the rest of the meal. The only one that actually stood out, though, was when he asked, “So is Fae Magic not necessary to [Gate]? Can you make a place like this in any Element? Or is a place like Ar’Cosmos only possible through Elemental Fae?”

“Fae live everywhere, Erick.” Fairy Moon said, “It was only when we were shunted into this small space that all our other lands languished without our wildlife. If not for the Script and the Sundering, if this were the Old Cosmology, you would already have young ones birthing out of your Benevolence, with or without your assistance. Sadly, that will not happen under the Script. You should still be able to create an abode inside Benevolence, but it would not be as becoming as Ar’Cosmos.”

“… Ah. Okay.” Erick mumbled, “So that’s a whole thing, eh.”

Fairy Moon nodded. “It is.”

The rest of breakfast was wonderful, though most of the food was simple background sensation to all the thoughts filling Erick’s head. He had all the secrets to [Gate], a few more secrets about Rift Magic that he had no idea what to do with, and another secret that he didn’t really care to explore at all—

Fairy Moon offered, “I could emplace some enchantment and tell you the Truth of the Dimensional Ban, even through the systems of the Script, though the second you saw a Mind Mage then those words would be ripped out of your head.”

“… Not right now.” Erick said, “Maybe later.”

Maybe he’d poke around the Dimensional Ban some day far, far in the future, when fewer Current Events were on the day’s docket.

Erick said, “I will take a magic practice room if you got it, though.”

“Of course.” Fairy Moon nodded.

- - - -

There had been no time to try out his magic.

After breakfast, a runner from House Fae rushed up to the front doors of Fairy Moon Manor and rapidly informed Maid Maria that words at the Rotunda were getting heated, and would Fairy Moon and Erick please come at their earliest convenience.

At least Erick had seen what might one day become the layer of Ar’Cosmos which would hold House Benevolence.

It was a sandy, sunny field that stretched off about 500 meters all around, surrounded by faint walls of mist. Beyond the mist lay Fairy Moon Manor, though that could change as Erick wanted. It was just the start of House Benevolence’s Layer, too, for if Erick supplied more mana to Ar’Cosmos, and once [Renew] entered the Open Script, it would likely become much larger. He could even connect it to other parts of Ar’Cosmos as he desired.

Later, he might even get to try out some new spellwork on that sandy field. But now, it was time to talk to dragons, and to the consequences of his actions—

No. That was the wrong way to approach the threat of being known; the problem of dragons and danger—

No. Not a ‘problem’. An opportunity.

Yes, he was a Wizard. Yes, Fairy Moon had fairy-fucked him over with mind and body control. Yes, the world was coming for him. Yes, there were all those complications and more, but also, if he threaded the needle correctly, if he spoke the right words and enabled the right possibilities among all those involved…

Then he could make the world a better place.

He could turn the Crystal Forest green. He could raise cities out of sand. Push back all the monsters both on the Surface and in the Underworld. He could bring rain to the people, and bring the people together in harmony. He could found entire new worlds. All problems could be solved, for the most major, most dangerous ones had been solved. The Sundering might not ever happen again. Melemizargo was getting better. The Shades were mostly gone.

The solutions to every problem might not be apparent at first, but those solutions were out there, somewhere, waiting to be discovered, or created.

Yes.

That was the right way to think of this.

And so, that was what Erick did.

- - - -

The Rotunda was located in the layer of Ar’Cosmos known as the High Road. Everything in this layer was made of pale, tan stone, reaching heights that shouldn’t have been possible with normal engineering. All the buildings were layered above one another in a way that certainly should have everything collapsing, but the High Road remained. In addition to that, the deeper parts of it were a maze, but the upper parts were not. It was quite nice at the top.

It was all quite a lot airier and with more greenery here and there than was probably strictly necessary, but this was the bureaucracy layer of Ar’Cosmos, and so a certain amount of ostentation was a necessary display of power.

Some specific buildings stuck up above the general horizon of the High Road. Each of those buildings were identifiable at a glance by their shape. The Rotunda was one of these places.

It was shaped like a rather thick, round skyscraper, and if it weren’t for the tan stone exterior and architecture made of arches, Erick could have almost imagined the Rotunda in any skyline on Earth. It had many half-moon towers rising all around that central tower, though; that was rather non-Earth-like. City hall, which rose next to the Rotunda, was much more normal in appearance, being three simple, blocky towers.

The current skyway under Erick’s feet led straight to city hall. From there, it was a short journey to the Rotunda, the forum within which the heads of house and their compatriots (and the Free Dragons) debated and crafted laws which everyone would then follow.

The roads did not have many people on them. This fact was evident in the glass vials that rose like tiki torches here and there upon the skyway. The candle flames inside those vials burned low. Erick could already tell the lack of people in this place through Ophiel, though. The few people that were on the roads were the soldiers of House Carnage, dressed in their red enamel plate armor, and looking a little bored here and there. Mostly all of them looked like half dragons, like Maria.

Behind Erick and Fairy Moon, Maid Maria walked like a guard; alert, yet playing at being relaxed.

Ten minutes of walking later, and they finally reached some traffic, most of which came up from the nearby stairwells nearer to city hall. Most people did not walk across the High Road to get here, after all; they came up from the other layers of Ar’Cosmos.

The massive, thirty meter tall doors of city hall stood open, like a great yawning portal into a land of paperwork and lawyers. Here, closer to the governing heart of Ar’Cosmos, were people. People of all kinds, from dragons with no tails and well-formed horns and barely any scales, to half-dragons with an assortment of whatever body parts they were born with, but mostly the tails and the scales set them apart. All of those people were either waiting in line to get served by clerks off to the side, or headed off to somewhere else after checking in with the people at the front desk. The inside of city hall was mostly austere and professional, but here and there were some large bits of opulence in the form of paintings and sculptures set to the sides of the wide, wide hallways, which detailed the history and the big names and faces of the larger powers of Ar’Cosmos.

The first, most obvious bit of opulence was Fairy Moon, appearing in white, pink, and green crystal, standing like a sentinel upon a large dais in the center of the main room, right behind the front counter. She was only slightly larger than life-size. Lights illuminated that sculpture most brilliantly, drawing the eyes of everyone who walked through the large doors.

But it was here, after Erick and Fairy Moon reached the doors, and then stepped inside, that the true sculptures of the room were revealed; further back, and to the extreme edges of the main room, for there was no other space for them otherwise.

Life-size sculptures of dragons, looming in the bright recesses of the room, formed wall-like sections of city hall with their snake-like bodies, all twisted and curled in on themselves, save for their heads, which stuck out a fraction into the main foyer of the main entrance. They were all made of solid crystal. One violet, one grey, one bright red. They were lifelike, for sure, and Erick was a bit nervous seeing dragons, but then he realized he shouldn’t be.

The guards to both sides of the entrance hall bowed. Erick didn’t get a chance to see much more of city hall before a nervous runner from House Fae stepped out from behind that front counter and walked straight up to Erick and Fairy Moon. Apparently, the powers of Ar’Cosmos were ready for them to show up. The nervous man was a little nervous because of Erick and Fairy Moon, but mostly he was nervous due to whatever was going on in the Rotunda. Erick glanced around the room and took in the sights of a hundred different people, each either glancing his way, or turning away trying not to be noticed.

Erick and Fairy Moon followed the nervous man through the main hall of city hall.

And for some bizarre reason, as he passed the large sculptures of Bright Smile, Illustrious Moon, and Inferno Maw, Erick couldn’t help but think that there was room for a fourth dragon. Perhaps replacing that other wall, over there. One made of Benevolence white crystal.

Wasn’t that an odd thought.

- - - -

A short bridge separated city hall from the Rotunda.

The building was much larger from this close.

The outermost parts of the Rotunda looked like layer upon layer of aqueduct arches, spiraling around a central core, gradually rising from the depths of the High Road, up to Erick’s current position, and then further still. It spiraled up into the sky like a very tightly coiled spring. And that was just the first, outermost shell of the Rotunda. A second, similar shell, held inside the first. And then a third shell after that.

The arches themselves were 25 meters tall at their tallest point, and about that much wide, too. As closely packed as those arches were, the whole design sort of seemed like a very airy Tower of Pisa, or something like that—

A full-sized dragon slithered out of an archway. And its body did not exit that fast. The dragon was a long one, for the dragon’s long body kept coming—

And then the green dragon stopped, and stared at Erick and Fairy Moon. They had seemed beyond furious and highly disgusted by whatever was going on inside, but they lost that expression in that single instant of recognition. They paused, nodded/bowed, and then turned right back around, reentering the Rotunda through another arch.

The guide from House Fae rapidly spoke about how things were deteriorating, but maybe things would be better now that Erick and Fairy Moon were showing. The guide led them down the bridge, leading into the Rotunda.

Erick and Fairy Moon followed—

Erick crossed an invisible barrier in the center of the skyway and sudden sounds filled his ears, like listening to news anchors fighting on a TV inside the next room over, but with those news anchors being dragons and with voices of comparable power. Erick steeled himself and followed the guide, into the depths of the Rotunda’s open air design.

He saw a few dragon tails before he saw the actual congregation, and as he moved forward, the sounds of argument began to fall quiet. Heads pulled back to glance at Erick and Fairy Moon as they walked forward, to the center, to a place that was set aside for them, or for any other people-sized persons who wished to participate in the discussions. From the nice stone chairs set not a meter from the edge, Erick guessed that this was Fairy Moon’s personal ‘skybox’.

The entirety of the Rotunda was quite simple in construction. It was five concentric layers of aqueduct arches, like five nesting dolls, with the central layer having an open space in the middle, about 250 meters wide. It was like a round courtyard. That rotunda started about fifty floors down from Erick’s current position, and continued up into the sky for another 20 floors. There was no roof; only open sky.

The interior aqueduct arches formed little balcony-like areas for the dragons to position themselves within, giving each individual dragon space with which to participate in the proceedings. There was some sort of height-based arrangement to the setup that had to do with hierarchy, but for the most part, the dragons who were arguing were floating in the center of the space, like streamers of brightly shining colors draped upon the air. Red, green, and blue, were the current speakers, with the red one seeming to be some sort of judge, if based upon her position above a bit of floating rock, while the other two free-floated; the debaters, no doubt.

And for a moment, upon seeing the full forum, Erick felt sweat trickle down his back.

Hundreds of sinuous, snake-like dragons poked out of all the other holes around the Rotunda, with their arms crossed and resting on the floors in front of them. As Erick stepped forward, those heads turned toward him. There were at least four hundred dragons sitting around, debating or listening.

There was a lot of power here in this Rotunda.

A lot.

The red dragon floating atop the floating rock, inside the hollow of the Rotunda, spoke quietly and rapidly toward the debaters, “This part of the discussion is shelved. Please take your seats.” Green and blue complied, though neither of them looked happy about it. And then the red dragon spoke with a voice raised for all to hear, “This congregation welcomes Archmage and Wizard Erick Flatt to the Rotunda of Ar’Cosmos. We appreciate your attendance.” She explained, “I am Mikatiti, the coordinator of this honorable Rotunda, and I will lay out some small rules for your non-dragon participation in this assembly—” Her voice shifted a fraction as she projected her words slightly more toward everyone else, “You will speak whatever you wish to speak. After that, we will have questions, as outlined by prior arrangements, that you are free to answer or deny as you deem necessary. When we are through with our questions we will discuss what you have said for a single hour, and then we will have more questions. You are free to remain while we discuss what you have said, but you are not required to do so. As you are the guest of honor, feel free to interrupt our own discussions at any point in time.” There were some minor grumbles and anger out there from the hundreds of dragons peeking out from the inner edges of the Rotunda, but no one interrupted Mikatiti. She continued, “After that hour of discussion, we ask for another round of questions. This cycle could go on for a while, or until you decide that you have had enough, and you decide you have other things to do.” She turned her full attention to Erick. “Do you have questions? Do you find this arrangement acceptable?”

Erick rapidly realized a few things, but one stood out most of all. Not a single dragon was visibly using voice enhancement magic. They were just that loud. So while it was probably embarrassing to need to cast such a magic, Erick did so anyway, twisting his aura to cast some magic to make his voice loud enough to be heard, “How many questions will I be answering per round? How long do you expect a cycle to take?”

Instantly, some people in the audience guffed out annoyance.

“Spellcasting is frowned upon. Use your normal voice; we can hear without needing you to speak loudly, either.” Mikatiti answered, “We have agreed upon four important questions, to start; one from each House, and one from the Free Dragons. We expect a little back and forth during each question, if you please. We expect a cycle to take an hour but it could take as long as two.”

Erick dropped his magic and spoke normally, though he did project his voice a little, “I want to confront the wrought contingent that is expected to show up at noon, for my hope with such a confrontation is to create less conflict and more prosperity and I need to talk with them, too, to ensure this goal. Aside from that, and from whatever other needs might occur, I will participate in this assembly for as long as I am able.”

The gathering seemed to mostly approve of that, though some dragons were obviously ready to speak out against the wrought. No one actually spoke out, though.

This was a lot more civilized than Erick had imagined.

Mikatiti seemed to relax, her entire 50 meter long body coiling downward a fraction, though she remained firmly hovering above her stone platform. “Then this assembly will have your opening statements. What do you desire from Ar’Cosmos? What can Ar’Cosmos expect from you in return?”

Erick centered himself, and then he began, “With the Shades mostly gone, the largest source of malfeasance on Veird has nearly been nullified. Going forward, I wish to solve many longstanding problems that continue to plague this world, and one such problem is the Dragon Blood Curse. A true solution to this problem will likely take decades to both manufacture and bring Kirginatharp to the table in order to cure that Curse, but there are smaller solutions to enact before then.

“With my creation of [Renew], and due to the way it allows cast-mana to become self-mana, which is a process we are still exploring, we are able to clear bloodlines and malformed Dragon Essence from those you call half-dragons. It is a cure and a transformation into a new body, all in one. It works. The half dragons already tested are recovering; their half-dragon nature having been stripped from them, along with all other elemental influences.

“An attempt was made to create a system which imbued a bloodline into a person, but that system failed for unknown reasons. So far, the only cure we have is for half dragons. I don’t believe such a system would allow a dragon to actually remain a dragon. All it does is strip all bloodlines from a person and give them a basic body.” Erick had repeated those facts a few times, to ensure that the dragons here understood it was not a way for them all to gain relief from the Curse. They seemed to. “I’m calling it [Reincarnation], but other people might use different words for the process in the future.

“And so, using this new magic, I hope to help everyone here in Ar’Cosmos who is unable to complete the Trial of the Wyrm to rid themselves of their half-cursed nature. In doing so, it is my understanding that such people will be able to leave Ar’Cosmos and resume normal lives outside of this space, out there on Veird.”

Practically every single dragon out there, under the myriad arches of the Rotunda, were on the edges of their stone seats. Some had tried to interrupt when Erick mentioned Kirginatharp, but Mikatiti, without even looking, silenced them with a flick of her tail. She did not cast any magic, but the offending dragons silenced themselves.

They listened attentively, so Erick continued.

“I also created Elemental Benevolence the other day.

“I’m a Wizard… apparently.

“And so, while I highly doubt I will be able to be taken easily by anyone who is not Fairy Moon, I do not wish to remain here in Ar’Cosmos, but when I am out there I will be targeted. To that end, I offer an invitation to Ar’Cosmos to come build a city beside Candlepoint’s lake. When I finally create [Gate], which I expect to be able to make… maybe later today, I expect Yggdrasil to become a world hub, where all the nations of the world can come and go in peace, and hopefully we’ll create some prosperity in that organization.

“I had originally planned to reveal my Wizardry in around 8 months, well after having a Gate Network up and running, but that plan has changed, and so we are here.” Erick breathed, and said, “To that end, I would like to tell you a little bit more about where we are in worldwide current events:

“Elemental Benevolence is the anti-Sundering element, and as such, it is primarily centered around Super Long Range anti-apocalypse prognostication awareness, with a primary purpose of helping the user spot both opportunities and problems when it comes to large-scale shifts in population. And so, I have already seen some problems that I am still considering how best to deal with, but none of those problems or opportunities look too pressing.

“I might make a House Benevolence to help with this sort of endeavor, but it won’t be one of Paradox’d Dragon/Benevolence Essence. If the creation of such a House seems reasonable and possible, then I will be looking for new house members to help me form that House. I expect our first task to be transforming the Crystal Forest into habitable land. Whatever happens after that remains to be seen, but I primarily see myself as heading an organization which helps people who request help, and which heads off large-scale problems without needing to be asked.

“I also foresee some heavy posturing in the beginning, made against all the other powerful forces of the world, like Kirginatharp, and the churches, and the wrought, and the Mind Mages, and especially the Dragon Stalkers.” Erick said, “But not all of those organizations are the same, and I hope to have open dialogues before I resort to war, because if I go to war then I will win that war.

“I don’t want to win a war through violence ever again, but I will if necessary.”

The dragons were concerned about Sundering talk and House Benevolence talk, but they also had hundreds of other emotions, too. Dragon faces and bodies were not quite as easy to read as normal people, and while there was a fair bit of distance between Erick and everyone else, except for his neighbors directly above, beside, and below him, he mostly understood what he was seeing. Far from being incited to harsh words, as Erick had imagined they would be, as soon as Erick got past the Sundering talk a lot of them had open greed writ large upon their faces, or perhaps some sort of hunger. At least two dragons out there were eyeing him as one would eye a particularly juicy cow.

After a moment of silence, Mikatiti announced, “And so, Ar’Cosmos gains Sight of the possibilities arrayed before us. Which section will ask their question first?”

Eyes and heads shifted as dragons sighted the dragons they were interested in hearing from next, or something along those lines. There were too many unknowns in this crowd for Erick to pick apart every nuance of the crowd, he did, however, think that the directions of the faces pointed was some sort of voting mechanism. He did notice, though, as three different dragons—

Nope. Four different dragons. One was below Erick by four floors.

Those four dragons stuck their sinuous tails out into the large space, raising them so they were seen by all.

A red dragon to the left. A white straight across. A grey to the right. A violet dragon down below.

Erick had never seen any of them before. As he looked around, he did not recognize Redflame, or… Well. Redflame was the only dragon he had seen in dragon form— But! Ah. Right. Dragons kept their same horns throughout all their forms, unless they were purposefully engaging in subterfuge. With that in mind, Erick reevaluated who he saw…

Nope.

He didn’t know any of them.

Mikatiti called upon the red one first, saying, “Akendri, Speaker for House Carnage.”

Akendri spoke up, “Will you be working toward making a form of Renewal Tank that fosters growth of the mutated Dragon/Other Essence which allows us to maintain our dragon forms outside in the rest of the world, while also avoiding Kirginatharp’s Dragon Curse?”

“[Renew] will come out in the Open Script in around ten or eleven months.” Erick said, “I expect other people to create that particular magic. As of right now, I don’t believe the current system or methodology will allow dragons to circumvent the Dragon Curse like they currently can, though I fully expect someone else to be able to create this particular magic.”

Greed glinted in the eyes of almost every dragon in the congregation. Some were worried, though.

Akendri digressed, “That is all.”

Mikatiti nodded, then announced, “Light Blight, of House Death.”

The white dragon, Light Blight, spoke, “I speak with specific regard to the wrought. Unlike most of my compatriots, I do not believe the Mind Mages will be a problem as long as the wrought decide to forgo open war. Since you are already allied with wrought, even though you are now revealed to be a Wizard, do you foresee them actually allowing you to live? Do you honestly believe that peace is possible? That they won’t try to get you to lower your defenses, and then attack when you are vulnerable?”

A loaded series of questions. Light Blight did not believe peace was possible at all. Many other dragons felt the same way, if Erick was reading them right.

Erick said, “I have made myself vulnerable to them before. Now that certain secrets are out, I will not be making myself quite that vulnerable ever again, or at least not until after a good ten years of easy cooperation.” Erick said, “For the wrought have been cooperative before, and I still have a link to the Script, which means I haven’t angered Rozeta too much. Considering their primary function is to be neutral and to ensure the world survives the worst case scenarios, I hope that my creation of Benevolence will grant me a great deal of goodwill with them. Rozeta has tried to work with Wizards before, and so, I feel I qualify for at least that much benefit of doubt.”

Light Blight asked, “What sort of defenses are you prepared to enact to secure this proposed city beside Candlepoint. How will you defend against outside threats, like those posed by the wrought?”

Erick said, “I can go into specifics, if you would like, but I will not go that deep because this is a security matter.”

“Specifics are not necessary.” Light Blight raised his head a fraction, then said, “I ask this question because House Death would provide supplemental infantry defense for this new, proposed land, if you can provide primary defense.”

“Overall, the plan is runic webs in the walls, widescale [Renew]-enabled archmage-level defenses across the entirety of the land, Yggdrasil’s defensive power, preventative magics everywhere, and treaties with all other governments that might need to be considered. Smaller scale security will likely be a continual issue, but there isn’t a city out there without a guard, and anything I create would be no different in that regard.” Erick said, “House Death’s offer is duly noted.”

Light Blight bowed his head a fraction, pulling back.

Mikatiti announced, “Proxy Dearth-of-red, of the Free Dragons.”

The grey dragon, Dearth-of-red said, “The Highlands know of Archmage Flatt’s measure and we approve, but we would like to make one thing clear: When you get back to Veird, we would ask you to research how to strip the Curse from a dragon, without needing to go through the tragedy that is Paradoxing. If you can do this magic then you will have a thousand dragons offering you their allyship, without reservation. Know this, Archmage Flatt: The Curse is the only thing holding us back from grinding the problems of Veird into nothing, be they monsters or murderers or face stealers or Hunters or Dragon Stalkers, or tyrannical wrought, or even Melemizargo himself. We can make this world a paradise, if only the Curse did not exist. If you can erase that curse from individuals, or as a whole, then we are pledged to you for now until forever.”

Mikatiti’s tone or posture did not change, but she felt a bit irritated as she asked, “Does the Speaker have a question?”

“All our questions about Erick and what he wants to do with this world have been answered a thousand times over.” Dearth-of-Red said, “The only thing that remains is to see him protected from any of the thousand and one threats still out there.”

Erick felt both good and bad about Dearth-of-red’s words. He had thought he had processed the emotions of a ‘flight of dragons’ being loosed on Veird, but apparently he had not.

Erick said, “I appreciate the offer.”

Dearth-of-red nodded.

Mikatiti moved on. “Asteroid Stars, of House Fae.”

Erick stuck his head back out over the edge.

The purple dragon’s eyes lingered on Dearth-of-red for a moment longer, then she raised her gaze up toward Erick, just a few floors above her. “We want you to get [Duplicate] from Kirginatharp. Can you do this?”

“… Why do you want that spell?” Erick said, “Illustrious Moon spoke about that desire, too.”

“Since the option exists where we can have everything if we want it, we should be allowed to have that option.” Asteroid Stars said, “Every single person you see dying from hunger, or from lack of shelter, or from lack of any material thing, is one more casualty in the tyranny of [Duplicate] being locked behind Kirginatharp and Rozeta’s decrees. We desire everything for everyone. We desire economies of thought and action, and to mitigate all economies of scarcity and greed.”

Ah.

Well...

“I’m right there with you, Asteroid Stars,” Erick said, “When new worlds open up, I’m sure that somewhere out there there will be a Script with just a few spells offered, and [Duplicate] might be among those offerings. But the wrought would never go for it here on Veird and I have already brought too much upheaval to this world. I don’t feel that the proliferation of [Duplicate] would do anything but cause a lot more upheaval.”

“But see! This is precisely the reason to proliferate this magic, today, or at least as soon as possible.” Asteroid Stars said, “The world is changing. Why not change everything to be better, all at once?”

Out in the audience, Asteroid Stars seemed to have a lot of supporters.

“I would prefer more incremental changes.” Erick said, “My main fear with the release of [Duplicate] is that it has a very large chance of causing untold destruction when some malefactor decides to copy Extreme Light materials and scatter them everywhere, while also causing a god to go Dark, like Atunir almost did back in the fall of Quintlan.”

“Ah! So a smaller release of [Duplicate] would be acceptable?” Asteroid Stars asked, “How about if such magic were to be given to the heads of the Houses of Ar’Cosmos? Or to trusted advisors?”

Erick had been led into a small trap that had the capability to turn into a very large one, for he saw the greed in the eyes of every dragon in the Rotunda. He knew that saying ‘no’ would lose him a lot of goodwill. That possible loss of goodwill might have stopped him from saying ‘no’ a year ago, or if he had fallen with Jane into Ar’Cosmos instead of the Crystal Forest and was thus raised with draconic overlords overseeing his life. Now, though, he had seen more than enough terrors that a tower full of dragons only ranked in the top 10 of his most terrifying experiences ever.

“I don’t feel that the pros of releasing [Duplicate] to the many is enough of a reason to anger the wrought and potentially topple all of the current governments of Veird.” Erick said, “I am trying for stability.”

Asteroid Stars smiled a little, saying, “Asking for simple peace would never work, therefore, we must ask for more, and be talked down to something lesser. Now that the Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst are gone, it is time for dragons to finally take the field!

“House Fae plans on demanding the wrought let us settle lands in the jungles of Continental Nergal. House Death wants Quintlan. The Free Dragons plan to gain control of Nelboor. House Carnage wants Glaquin, though we know they are already willing to share lands with House Benevolence. In fact, all of our people desire to share lands with House Benevolence.

“Right now, our power is limited, but I and all of House Fae believe that true peace is possible, and so we must shape what is to come, and part of that shaping is the demand for certain changes. The demand for [Duplicate] is something we are willing to give up with regard to gaining all of the world, but you don’t honestly want all us dragons out there keeping the world clear of monstrous threats without some personal benefit, would you?” Asteroid Stars said, “Personally, I want a bed of warm gold, and gems, and pearls. I would rather have a bed of riches that I [Duplicate]d than one I had to gather from all the peasants that live under my aegis. They never pay enough and they always complain.”

Asteroid Stars’ words resonated with a lot of other dragons. Erick felt that he should have been a bit surprised by Asteroid Star’s open greed, but he wasn’t. Not really. Dragons and greed were a multi-universal concept, it appeared.

There was only one way to respond to such a hard-line stance, though.

Erick said, “That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. I’ll need to think about that.”

There were more than a few small huffs of laughter all around the Rotunda. They all knew that Erick was refusing to answer. Asteroid Stars huffed a small laugh too, then nodded to Erick, and then to Mikatiti.

The redscale arbiter of the Rotunda announced, “And thus ends the first round of questioning. We shall begin the discussion.”

Instantly, tails flicked out from beside their owners. Mikatiti called upon a tealscale. That bright dragon then spoke of how he wanted more information about the Renewal Tanks, and their limitations. In response, Light Blight, the dragon from House Death, began speaking of Inferno Maw’s current investigations.

Behind Erick, a man and a woman came forward with small refreshments. Another usher brought forth a perch for Ophiel to sit upon. That perch had a thick base and a long arm that could extend out into the Rotunda by two meters; it would allow Erick to look down, or up, without having to actually look over the edge. Fairy Moon was already seated on her not-a-throne. Erick took the seat beside her.

And so, Erick and Fairy Moon sat at the edge of the Rotunda, with Ophiel seated about two meters out, hanging over the abyss of dragons, his watchful eyes allowing Erick to view everyone, including dragons directly above or below.

Mostly, Erick listened, though.

And he wondered about many things. Perhaps the smallest of which was the question of what sort of anger had been erupting that had required the runner from House Fae to come out and collect him so early. Were these dragons just being polite now that Erick was here? Or was it Fairy Moon’s presence that caused them to act civilized? Or were they always civilized? And if they were always civilized…

Had that runner made Erick come out here early specifically so he didn’t get a chance to play around with Benevolence?

… No. That was too much paranoia.

Or perhaps it was just the right amount?

- - - -

An hour of talk passed faster than Erick would have thought possible, and while it was interesting, it was mostly about things outside of his control. Or rather, things he decided that would remain outside of his control.

The dragons were planning on dividing up the Surface of Veird amongst themselves, and not a single one thought that their goals were impossible. As soon as [Renew] helped them solve the problem of the Curse, then they would pour out across Veird like a Benevolent tide.

They had used that word exactly like that, too. ‘Benevolent’ tide. They were including Erick in their plans for world conquest.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about world conquest, though certain societies would surely benefit from someone taking them into hand. Like the Sovereign Cities. That place was still having a civil war apparently, between the rebels and the nobility. Erick cared not for either side except in that general way one cared about other people, but everyone in the Sovereign Cities was horrible, so a draconic master might actually be able to impose some good reforms in that land.

House Carnage was looking forward to ending that civil war.

Other Houses had other desires.

Continental Nergal with the slavers in the jungles was a problem that House Fae wished to solve, and they already had pixie allies down there.

In a similar, yet different way, The Free Dragons wanted to end the wars on Nelboor through the rise of ‘Empire’ Songli.

House Death wished to bring Necromancy mainstream; to stop the persecution of Necromancers the world over. They also desired to legitimize the Fractured Citadels of Quintlan, to make others see that land as one of civilization, and not as a land of monsters. Living Undead were just a different type of person, after all. Erick’s [Reincarnation] magic, once they figured out all of those intricacies, might even allow them to bring the dead back to true life in a [True Resurrection] sort of way. There were always problems with [Resurrection] magic, but [Renew] might actually solve those problems, since [Renew] completely mitigated the myriad different-mana issues that naturally arose during the course of an attempted resurrection.

House Carnage also wanted to end the Quiet War on Glaquin; to bring both the Wasteland Kingdoms and the Greensoil Republic to heel. They expected Erick’s assistance in this eventual goal…

Erick gave some lip service toward ending the Quiet War on Glaquin, and every other question posed to him, but mostly he abstained from any true commitments.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about draconic overlords.

For some reason, he thought back to Apogee, the copper dragonkin, planar, former guildmaster of the Wayfarer’s Guild back at Spur, actually-a-half-dragonkin-now-that-Erick-knew-better. That guy had gotten through almost all of the Worldly Path, but he hadn’t wanted to take that last step; he didn’t want to make [Gate]. Erick had believed that Apogee’s reasons could have been anything from not trusting Melemizargo, to being a slight misanthrope, but as Erick sat here he knew yet another reason why Apogee had never taken that final step. Apogee had even said as much.

That man hated the draconic overlords of his previous world.

The dragons of this world treated their dragonkin offspring rather poorly, too, for they usually absconded at the earliest possible convenience as soon as the offspring didn’t show any potential for true power. Poi had even been subjected to this. His father was actually a dragon, and that guy had left Poi, his sister, and his mother behind, as soon as his draconic nature was discovered. Poi’s story was not unique at all.

Like, sure, maybe the dragon up and left to prevent other dragons from coming down and starting a fight, but then there was Al, and Savral, and Erick was almost 100% sure that Al was actually a dragon. He stuck around with his kid. Most dragons did not do that.

Maybe there was more to it than that, though?

Maybe Poi’s father had been found out as a dragon. Or maybe it was just the Dragon Stalkers who forced the issue.

But even so…

Erick didn’t know how he felt about creating a world of draconic overlords.

Personally, for him, having all these dragons allied with him was like allying with hundreds of immortal archmages who also happened to be archwarriors. Erick would not be unassailable in such a world, but he would be a lot safer. And besides that, these dragons were not like the dragon kings of Apogee’s homeworld. Some of them seemed like good people. (Though Erick was absolutely sure that they were putting on a good face for his benefit.)

And yet…

Rozeta had said that Veird would not survive a true flight of dragons.

Perhaps…

Was all this talking just a smokescreen? To hide their innate viciousness?

Ar’Cosmos was the only part of the world where they could be themselves, this was true, but it was also the only part of the world where a very, very old fae enforced rules of non-violence. Maybe they weren’t actually being pleasant because of Erick. They were probably being pleasant because of the very, very powerful fae sitting a meter to Erick’s left.