Ar'Kendrithyst

A warm breeze flowed through Ophiel’s feathers to catch on deftly held wings.

Erick wasn’t flying with [Airshape] right now. He was flying with skill and precise control. This was not how Ophiel usually flew. Ophiel’s body was a mess of wings that naturally moved around, responding to his desires and temperament. Ophiel was poorly suited to natural flight. But with Erick in control, Ophiel’s wings stabilized into a configuration of two large ones and a mess of smaller ones, to provide for easier flying on the natural wind. Getting to this point had taken Erick months of trial and error, and learning how to control a body that was not his, but he had managed to do it anyway. Flying, unaided, felt wonderful.

Sunny, flying next to Ophiel in a completely magical manner, looked stilted by comparison. She didn’t bounce with the breeze, or turn with the wind. She just hovered forward, perfectly out of tune with her surroundings.

‘There it is,’ came Kiri’s voice.

With less of her attention spent on flying, Kiri was much more cognizant of their surroundings than Erick. Erick went back to using [Airshape] to fly. The wind turned into a friend, holding Ophiel aloft without the beating of wings or any real effort, creating a rift of controlled reality between Reality and Erick’s senses of his [Familiar].

Erick gazed out across the southern sky with a few eyes, and saw what Kiri had seen.

They had started their search from the north, flying with the wind. Erick had used [Cascade Imaging] to roughly scout the land; the Hole was supposed to be a very distinctive structure in the landscape, and it was, but seeing the Hole in a projected image and seeing it ‘in person’ were two very different things.

The horizon was a flat orange line. Just below that line, was a dark thread. Sunny shot forward. Erick followed, marveling all the way at exactly how big the Hole truly was.

The desert dipped down to a dark edge of jagged stone that stretched to the east and the west. Wider than Spur by double, at least, deeper than the tallest mountain Erick had ever seen, with depths that vanished into shadow, the Hole was a place of wind and sky that dove into the dirt, like a god had poked a hole into the surface of Veird, just to see how deep they could drive their power. It was an entrance to the Underworld. It was the second most dangerous place in the Crystal Forest. If not for Ar'Kendrithyst, there would undoubtedly have been some sort of permanent city near the Hole. But Ar’Kendrithyst did exist, and the Hole had a habit of spewing out monsters sized to eat small buildings, and hordes that ravaged indiscriminately.

And that was all Erick knew of this place. He’d only picked up that much information on the Hole because some of the monsters he had to kill came from here. Most monsters from the Underworld didn’t usually make it far topside. This fact was even more true in the Crystal Forest; most natural living things couldn’t survive in this desert for more than a few days.

Flying high over the Hole, where the wind held him aloft with a bare push from [Airshape], Erick sent to Kiri, ‘How much do you know of the Hole?’

‘I know it’s full of dark-aspect monsters. I never really studied the Underworld, either. But now that we’ve found it—’ A rush of small joys accompanied Kiri’s words, ‘So? A real battle?’

Erick would have smiled if he was in his own body. He sent ‘I’ll go 121 kilometers north. You go 122. We’ll meet in the middle.’

Sunny, emerald green and shimmering like glass, blipped away.

Ophiel followed, sort of.

- - - -

Erick came back to himself, sitting in a lounge chair with Ophiel in his lap. A few questions filled his mind. His Ophiel near the Hole had been killed, obviously, but how? And so quickly, too? He looked across the room, to Kiri.

Kiri opened her eyes and grinned. Sunny lifted her head from Kiri’s shoulders.

Erick summoned another Ophiel and sent him blipping across the land, as he asked, “What did you hit me with?”

“A cheap shot.”

“I really should have tried to join you in Professor Ulogai's advanced combat courses.”

Kiri shrugged, smiling as she summoned another Sunny, saying, “Maybe next time you’ll see it coming?”

- - - -

Hard-winged Ophiel watched all around him, burning [Hunter’s Instincts]; the sky was clear.

There was no warning. One second the sky was clear. The next, it was still clear, but it was also refracted and glittering in every single direction, but only along thin, barely visible lines. Erick instantly recognized what was happening, but not before Ophiel’s natural wing movements had cut off five wings and dropped him to half Health. Ophiel blipped to the right, and saw where he had been.

A thousand thin lines of something populated the air.

‘What is that, Kiri?’

Five Sunny appeared out of the air—

Erick added, ‘And a 5 on one fight! And [Invisibility], too?’

‘I said it was a cheap shot.’ Kiri said, ‘Well… More like several cheap shots all at once. It’s [Hermetic Seal] but stretched into lines; [Hermetic Razor]. I made it a while ago. It only really works when it’s layered like this, though.’ She teased, ‘You told me exactly where you were going to show up for the fight! I knew where to be to screw up your plan.’

Erick considered for a moment, before he said, ‘All valid points.’ He realized yet another implication of her words. ‘And when did you get [Invisibility]?’

Kiri chuckled, ‘I don’t have [Invisibility]. I don’t need it when I’m fighting with Sunny.’

To punctuate her words, each Sunny faded from the color of bright jade, to green glass, to clear. Even with [Hunter’s Instincts] active, Ophiel could barely see the five of them, circling him like raiders waiting to strike.

Ophiel responded with two black bursts of magic, spending 1700 mana to [Dispel] with the same power as Erick’s 850 mana. Erick cast the same spell three times. The first two Sunnys went down without a reaction. The second two had enough time to realize something was happening. The third almost blipped away, but Erick caught her halfway through a [Blink], and apparently that was enough to work.

- - - -

Erick came back to himself, smiling.

Kiri glared at him. “I don’t have nearly as much mana as you, so it’ll take a while for me to get back out there.”

“No comment over the cheap shots?”

“Nope. None.” Kiri added, “[Dispel] is a valid tactic, and you know how much Sunny costs me to cast. I would have done the same to you, but then nothing is learned, and nothing is gained.”

“Yeah. But I won that one. Don’t try to pull that spoilsport ‘nothing learned, nothing gained’, on me.”

Kiri just summoned another Sunny, and magnanimously laid back down in her chair, ceding the point with an upturned nod of her head.

- - - -

Ophiel flew fast, carving the air with his wings and beams of force.

Sunny dodged, returning fire with fire, setting feathers alight.

With a twist and a flicker into light, the fire went out. Ophiel blipped to Sunny, layering fire around the serpentine [Familiar] like a cloying splash of white hot heat. Sunny peeled that fire away, shedding the [Endless Plasma Wrap] like a second skin—

‘Oh come on,’ Erick sent, ‘You can peel my Wrap away like that?’

‘Of course I can.’ Kiri said, ‘That spell is great for fighting monsters, but not people.’

‘You know? Almost none of my spells work against Sunny.’

‘That seems like a ‘you’ problem.’

They fought in the sky for an hour.

Kiri won, almost every time. It was a humbling, yet fun, experience.

- - - -

“That’s enough for me!” Erick decided, sitting up in his chair after his tenth loss.

Kiri came back to herself, saying, “Time to explore the Underworld? At least a little?”

“Maybe tomorrow. I’m suddenly tired of fighting.” Erick paused in thought. He added, “That reminds me. I need to go see some people.” He asked, “Can you keep an eye on the roast? Or would you rather come look for Delia and Ikawa? I need to see if they’re doing okay.”

Kiri rapidly decided, “I will keep an eye on the roast!” She added, “And I might explore the Underworld a bit on my own, too.”

Erick nodded, “That works, too. Thanks, Kiri.”

- - - -

The Mage’s Guildhouse was a three towered, grey stone affair. It was one of the largest buildings in the Mage District, with peaked roofs, tall windows, and scant parapets. Since the last time Erick had been here, another grey building had gone up right next door, similar to the first in size, but not in style, with a carving over the entrance archway that read ‘Sapphire Halls’ and a smaller sign that read ‘Mage Guild Residents Only’. It looked like a dormitory of some sort, with individual balconies all around the outside.

The entrance of the Guildhouse had changed, too.

Erick avoided looking too much at the people who looked at him and spoke in quiet voices, as he walked into the Guildhouse. He did, however, look for Anhelia, the iron wrought incani at the front desk. She spotted Erick almost as fast as Erick spotted her. She was working behind the receptionist’s desk, just beyond the doorway to the guild, as an instructor of some sort; she stood behind a young man who sat behind the desk. The young man, in turn, spoke to a woman standing on Erick’s side of the desk. With a few words from Anhelia, cutting the younger man short, the customer nodded, thanked Anhelia, and walked to the right, toward the job boards.

Erick stepped up to the desk.

Anhelia smiled at him as she interrupted her junior, saying, “I’ll take care of this one.” She stepped to the side of the desk. “Hello, Archmage Flatt. What can I do for you, today?”

The young man did a double take at Erick, then quickly busied himself, acting like he was reading from a thin book behind the desk.

Erick stepped to the side, saying, “Hello, Anhelia. I’m looking for Ikawa Kali. I want to know if she’s doing okay.”

Anhelia lost her smile, but she did not seem angry. She said, “Ikawa moved into the sapphire residences next door.” She turned to the guy, asking, “Get me Ikawa Kali’s room number. She should be listed in the mages-for-hire book.” The guy rapidly fumbled through a different book, while Anhelia said, “Despite how Ikawa looks and acts, she is not doing well, Erick.” The man at the desk handed a small card to Anhelia. She glanced at it, then handed it off to Erick, saying, “Good luck.”

Erick took the card, saying, “Thank you, Anhelia.”

- - - -

The door was open. Erick peered inside. The only furniture in the grey stone room was a wooden couch. Someone moved something heavy further inside; whatever it was slid across the floor with a screech and a knock against the stone wall.

Erick knocked on the open door, saying, “Hello?”

Ikawa called out, “One second! Be right there!” A crunch and a small, “Oh no,” preceded the sound of a glass breaking against stone. “Oh well.” Ten seconds later, Ikawa appeared around a corner. She saw Erick. She paused.

For the briefest of moments, Erick saw Ikawa break in a hundred small ways. Her wingtips folded backward. Her claws clutched at nothing. Her eyes, the color of an amber sunset, turned dewy, as she blinked away a tear. But then Erick saw her lips twitch. Her eyebrows narrowed. Anger took hold, and then that emotion washed away, too.

Erick said, “Hello, Ikawa. I’m sorry about—”

“Don’t. Not… Not yet.” She said, “I need a moment.”

She didn’t tell him to leave. She didn’t tell him to stay. She just stood there. So Erick waited outside the doorway, not stepping into the apartment.

After a minute, Ikawa found herself, or something close enough. She spoke without rancor, “I’m glad you didn’t try to talk to me at the party. I wouldn’t have been able to keep it together for Savral.” She added, “Grandmother never knew the specific vector that her death would take, but she knew it would come from you.”

Ikawa’s words were a punch to Erick’s stomach that kept going, to reach up into his ribcage and squeeze.

She continued, “But that’s just the curse of the Weather Witch. When you speak with the sky for long enough, it sometimes tells you things you don’t want to know.” She smiled. She laughed. She broke into a quick sob, then stopped. She turned away. When she turned back, she gestured to the back of her apartment, saying, “I was just about to test out my new stove, making some tea. Would you like to come in and have some?”

Erick found his footing. He said, “Yes.”

Ikawa put on a happy smile, saying, “Come on in, then! Shut the door and have a seat.” She stepped away, saying, “I’ll start the tea.”

Erick walked into Ikawa’s house and sat down on the couch. Poi followed and closed the door; he stayed standing with his back to the wall. The casual sounds of pots and pans clattering around came from the kitchen. A minute later, Ikawa came back to the living room, carrying a glass pot of tea, already turning dark from brewing leaves. She poured Erick a cup, first, then herself. She offered to Poi, but he politely declined.

She began, “Krakina hated you, at first. She told me when she first saw you that the spectre of her death laid on your shoulders like a cloak. It wasn’t till later that she understood that hatred was just her fears that she had to work past.”

The hot tea in Erick’s hands felt cold.

She continued, “She never stopped being scared, not really. But she worked through her fear… I don’t know how to do that. Not really.” She added, “I only learned about this two weeks ago. I never knew any of this until the week before the Red Dot. Looking back on it, I’m sure that if her own death wasn’t coming for her, that she could have warned us about the attack. About what it meant. About who was coming, and how they would arrive.” She kept going, “She also told me that you would come calling after she died and that I was to throw away my fear, but it’s all very strange. I don’t think I can do that.” She stopped. She stared off into the distance. She said, “She held on to her fear. But she wants me to ignore mine— Huh. ‘Wants’… Look at me. Talking like she’s still alive.”

A long moment passed. Steam curled into the air from barely sipped mugs.

She asked, “Say something, please.”

Erick tried to find something to say. “I’m sorry for killing your grandmother.” He tried to find his footing; a joke came out, “No wonder she hated me! I’d hate me, too.”

“What? No. That’s wrong.” Ikawa paused. She said, “Sorry. I’m not… I had a small speech prepared because I knew you would show. Grandmother told me you would. But… Grandmother liked you, a lot. She also made sure to tell me— Sorry. I’m doing this all wrong. She didn’t blame you. But you were how she would die. Death comes for everyone, and Grandmother was no exception. She was scared, and she never fully accepted what would happen, but she knew you. She liked you, as a person.” Ikawa found her center, saying, “She liked you too much, in fact. You became the eye of her storm, and she never wanted that. She loved to be the free flowing wind, soaring above it all, only coming down when circumstance demanded. But death comes for us all. Even she couldn’t out fly that inevitability.” She smiled as a tear fell. She wiped it away with a wingtip and chuckled, saying, “But she made so much money working the Farm. She loved that. She loved the work, too. In the end, she decided to find solace in leaving a legacy. So she stayed on the Farm making money, putting away an inheritance.”

Silence filled the room.

Erick said, “I’m glad Krakina had that opportunity. I don’t know what I’d do if I knew I was about to die.”

Ikawa silently sipped her tea.

Erick tried to turn the conversation somewhere nicer, or at least less heavy, “Are you going to follow in her steps? Become Spur’s Weather Witch?”

“Yes. Grandma hoped to be there for my final tests, but she knew that would never happen. She guided me on most of the trials, though.” Ikawa said, “I drove a stormfront across the Crystal Forest last month. I was struck by lightning and survived. The sand storms are due to arrive in a few weeks. Some of them have already begun further up north. That’s the last test; Protect your home from Nature’s Scouring.”

“Is there any way I can help?”

Ikawa spoke with finality, “No.”

A long, silent moment passed.

Erick asked, “Do you want to be involved in the Gardens? I would like to make that happen for you, if you wish.”

Ikawa eventually said, “No. I’m going to be more of a diviner than a farming magnate.” She offered, “But if you want to know the future I might be able to help in a few years.”

“Are you going to be okay, Ikawa?”

She smiled, but it was a put-upon expression. She said, “Not for a while, but eventually. Thank you for coming.” She added, “Truly, I mean that. It means a lot to me.”

Erick took that as his cue to leave.

- - - -

Delia Greentalon, the 16 year-old pinkscale daughter of Valok Greentalon, stood on the sands of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse arena, fighting with a similarly sized blackscale boy. She clutched daggers in her hands, striking where she could, and dodging the boy’s spear when she needed to dodge. The boy tried to strike a decisive blow, but Delia held the spear away with one dagger and struck the boy’s hands, drawing a thin line of blood. The boy yelped, dropping the spear. Delia moved in—

Draz, the incani instructor overseeing the match, called out, “Enough!”

The boy was already on the ground. Delia held her daggers against his throat. She breathed hard. Her eyes were points of pink light that stared into the boy’s black eyes. She pressed—

Draz was suddenly beside the girl with one hand on the back of her neck and the other holding her hand away from the boy. The light in her eyes died. Draz hauled her to her feet. She dropped her daggers; they were wooden things, merely practice tools. The boy, for his part, scrambled backward, across the sand.

Draz let Delia go when the boy was far enough away, saying, “That was uncalled for, Delia.”

Delia put on a strong face. “Sorry.” She turned to the boy, who was already at the edge of the arena with the other young kids. She called out, “Sorry!” She almost said something else, but she saw Erick standing beyond the short wall around the arena. Her eyes went wide. She shouted, “You!”

Everyone turned toward Erick. Most of them focused on Mog, standing beside Erick; Mog was a much more well known person, in this place. She was also a meter taller than Erick. Hardly any of them recognized the archmage that had brought the rains to Spur; most of them were kids, so that didn’t surprise Erick. Draz, though, he recognized Erick. Delia rushed toward Erick—

Draz spoke with authority. “You’re not done here, Delia.”

Delia froze in her tracks. She turned to Draz. “May I please be excused?”

Draz wanted to say no; it was in his eyes and his posture, but as Erick glanced to Mog, he saw Mog nod toward Draz.

Draz said, “Get out of here.” He added, “You’re running punishment laps tomorrow.”

Delia bowed to her instructor and to her training partner, then quickly rushed toward Erick. She vaulted the wall between them, coming to stand a meter from him. She asked in a nice voice, “Can we speak somewhere else?”

Erick had no idea what to make of the young woman. Part of him was deeply concerned at her display, but Delia did not seem to be sad, and Mog had already expected this to happen, so Erick said, “Yes. Guildmaster Mog has been kind enough to provide a meeting room for us to use.”

Mog said, “I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you, Mog,” Erick said.

“Thank you, Guildmaster,” Delia added.

Mog gave a guarded look to Erick and a blank look to Delia, before turning and walking away.

- - - -

Erick sat on one side of a short table. Delia sat on the other side.

Delia began, “Thank you for taking the time to see me, archmage.”

Erick was prepared to let Delia keep her mask of emotions hard set, but he needed to know, “Are you okay, Delia?”

Delia did not answer. She just blinked a few times.

Erick continued, “I’m sorry about your father. If there is something I can do to help, please tell me.”

Delia paused for a moment, before saying, “There’s a whole group of us kids— Not kids. I mean. We Matriculated recently. A lot of us went early because we have to step up to the frontlines, wherever those frontlines may be. My birthday isn’t until next month, but the hunters attacked us and we’re on our own. Uh. Some of us have gone to the Church—” She breathed deep. She said, “I would— We would like if you could sponsor us.” She quickly added, “We don’t want money, or teaching, or any secrets. But we’ve seen those enchanted rings you’ve made for Spur’s Army and we want them. Um. Please. It will be a great boon for us moving forward in the world.”

Erick readily agreed, “Done. How many people?”

Delia flinched backward. Her mouth dropped open. She came back to herself as quick as she could, then said, “There are 283 of us.” She added, “Now that number might seem large, considering that only a 103 full time farmers were killed, but there were a fair number of those outside of the farming community that lost their… lost their...” Tears poured, and her voice cracked, but as her pinkscaled face turned red and pained, Delia kept speaking as best she could, “A lot of people don’t have breadwinners… anymore. So I would like… you to help us get… get back on our feet, a little.” She breathed. She calmed. She said, “Some increased Stats would do well for those of us who are planning on joining the time honored tradition of killing monsters.”

Erick said, “I’ll make 600 rings. 75 each of the normal Stats, and 300 other ones that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Unless you’d prefer some other ratio on the first 300?”

Delia seemed to deflate a little, like she had won a battle she had never known she could win. She said, “Thank you, archmage. That will be a good ratio.”

“Your father did a great deal of good for everyone around him.” He said, “I look forward to you being as strong and as capable as him, but you have many years to get there. If you personally need something, and I can give it, please ask. This isn’t just a one time thing, either. I feel a great deal of responsibility toward what happened—”

“It was NOT your fault,” Delia shouted. She closed her eyes hard, embarrassed or mad for her outburst; Erick couldn’t tell. She said, “It was their fault. Portal’s. And the hunters.” She bared her fangs, saying, “They allowed that wyrm Caradogh into—” She cut herself short. She said, “You tried to do good. You helped my father make something beautiful.” She cried as she said, “We could have had a really good life! Dad loved Spur! He loved the Farm.” Delia sniffled, then said, “He loved it here.” She whispered, “I love it here, too.”

Erick waited for his own emotions to pass.

Erick asked, “What are you going to do, now, Delia? You have some place to stay? Is someone taking care of you? Feeding you dinner? Do you have money for clothes?”

Delia laughed a little. She said, “I’ve been making dinner for Dad and I for…” She paused. She said, “I’ve been making dinner for a while. I have my home, too. I cleaned up the results of the fight, so there’s no worries there. And Dad saved up a lot of money, anyway. I’m good, but I’ll be even better when some of the others get with the program and get back on their feet. I don’t know what the vast majority of everyone is doing, but some of us are becoming adventurers.”

“It’s only been a week. You don’t have to push yourself so hard.”

She smiled. “I’m not pushing myself hard at all, archmage, but thank you for your concern.”

Erick changed tactics. “What sort of adventurer do you think you want to be? Can I help you with that?”

“Poison. And no. Not really. Thank you.” She smiled, adding, “Poison is great against monsters, and it’s easy to avoid direct danger with just a bit of [Cleanse].”

Erick wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t poison. “Okay. Uh. Good luck with that?” He added, “I don’t know any poison magic at all.”

“It’s a good specialization!” She added, “It’s also good for killing bugs without killing plants. It’s not so useful in Spur where this place is the only green land in five [Teleport]s, but anywhere else inside a proper ecosystem? A good poisoner is necessary for a good harvest.”

Erick smiled. “You’re right. I hadn’t considered that angle.” He asked, “How do you make a good poison for killing the right insects? I suppose you wouldn’t want to accidentally kill bees or aphid reapers, either.”

Delia said, “It’s all in the proper use of the Decay aspect of Mana Altering. You gotta be able to do it just right or else you end up with something too harmful to use properly. And then there’s all the Health-cost debilitating magics, like [Blind] and [Deaf] and [Dumb]. If you’re good, you can make those into a poison with Decay, too, but that’ll take me years to get right.”

“That sounds good, Delia.” Erick said, “I’m glad you have a plan.”

“I do.” She stood, saying, “But that’s for later. I gotta pass Instructor Draz’s course, first, before they’ll let me take quests from the guild board. The first thing I’m gonna do is hunt mimics till level 35, then I’m headed to the Hole with some friends.”

Erick stood, saying, “You’re going to hunt mimics with friends, too, right?”

“… Yes.”

“Please be safe out there, Delia.” Erick said, “Get some adventuring friends before you go out after mimics. One of the safest ways I ever killed a mimic was with [Stoneshape] making a great big roller with spikes on it and then rolling over the mimic.”

“I will get some friends before I hunt mimics, archmage. Thank you for looking after me. Thank you for that tip.” She asked, “Could you please deliver those rings to the Church?”

“Of course, Delia.”

Delia bowed, and quickly exited the room. Erick heard Delia cry in the hallway, two tiny sobs, before she breathed easier and kept walking; she never broke her stride.

When he was in control of his own emotions, Erick sent Poi, ‘Should I make the bigger Stat rings for the kids, or smaller Stat rings?’

‘Smaller means less chance of someone recognizing the rings for what they are and trying to take them from the kids, which could be a problem. Larger ones mean that the kids might survive their more dangerous encounters, but once word gets out about that, they will become targets for sure.’ He added, ‘Therefore, I’d suggest the smaller ones.’

Erick nodded, and thought. He sent, ‘Smaller ones for now, with a promise that larger ones are possible if they prove to be reliable adventurers? That’s almost how the Headmaster does it.’

‘A fair compromise.’

‘And did I hear that right? She’s still living in the home where they killed Valok? I guess it’s her home, but… That seems awful.’

‘You heard correctly; I heard it, too.’

Erick’s stomach seemed to twist into a knot.

- - - -

“It was non-stop fighting down there in the Hole.” Kiri smiled as she said, “I evaded the adventurers and killed the monsters, of course, but still! Not a single moment of rest.”

Erick smiled over dinner, as Kiri spoke of her short foray into the Hole.

He had left a roast in the oven, surrounded by vegetables of all kinds. It turned out really well, especially with the spice blend that Ratchet had given him earlier in the day. Tomorrow would be another full morning of rain, but this time the food would be for sale directly to the public. Erick wasn’t quite happy with how stiff the current arrangement felt; something about it just didn’t sit right. But the Community Gardening Council had decided to do it this way, and everyone would get their food soon enough…

He made a plan, right then, to go out and investigate the grocers, to make sure that there wasn’t anything like price gouging happening out there. He doubted that there was, but he wanted to make sure, anyway.

Kiri sliced into her roast, saying, “I had to string a few Sunnys together in order to transmit past more than a few curves in the ground. The degradation of signal was just too much. But I managed to get a few kilometers down. Shadowolves just littered the place, you know, and Sunny looks like an absolute snack, apparently.” She exclaimed, “Practically everyone attacked me from every angle! Adventurers were no different than the wolves. You got the rookies swinging their [Force Beam]s wherever they could —which didn’t do much, of course— and then you got the veterans who were able to actually get to Sunny and slice her up, or explode her— One woman about my age was content to watch for a while, but I couldn’t evade her; she just kept appearing out of the edge of my vision. Every five minutes! I’d be killing some wolf that jumped out of nowhere, and then she’d be there, all wrapped in black cloth and brooding, with her little black horns jutting out of her headscarf.” Kiri said, “I almost attacked her twice! But she evaded, thankfully.”

Erick smiled. “But what did it all look like?”

“Oh? Uh.” Kiri thought for a moment. “It was dark, mostly. Cavernous. Kilometer-wide tunnels carved by people and monsters, full of swift moving air and side tunnels. No natural light. Dark as night. But Sunny is rather bright, so that didn’t bother me at all.” She smirked, saying, “It was great avoidance training, though.” She added, “There’s no ‘night time’ down there. You could go right now with Ophiel and try it, and probably get much of the same experience.”

Erick glanced out of the kitchen window. The sky was purple with twilight. Faint stars had already begun to appear. He said, “Maybe I will.”

A minute later, while Erick was speaking of [Lightwalk] and the intricacies of what it meant to be a projection of himself, but before Kiri had a chance to give her opinion, he heard the door to the house open. Heavy boots followed, as the door shut behind.

Erick turned to the kitchen archway, saying, “Hey, Teressa! Welcome back! Dinner is already on.”

Teressa appeared around the corner, wearing the silver armor of Spur’s Guard. She smiled, saying, “Smells delicious.”

“Grab a plate.” Erick asked, “How was guard training?”

Teressa grabbed a plate and began dishing herself out an orcol-sized portion of the meal, saying, “One more day of training and learning the ropes, then I can come back here, full time. Guardmaster Merit wants me on partial-call, because—” She smiled, adding, “You’re looking at Spur’s newest [Witness]. I got the spell today.”

Erick smiled wide, saying, “Fantastic!”

Kiri clapped, saying, “Congratulations!”

Poi smiled softly, adding, “Good job, Teressa.”

“Well we have to celebrate, now!” Erick said, “I need to buy some beer!”

Kiri said, “We have some already. Rollo dropped off three kegs while you were out.”

Erick stood from the table, saying, “Even better.”

“I’ll get it,” Poi said, standing up from the table. “You did well, Teressa.”

Erick sat back down, saying, “You did very well.”

Teressa’s green skin turned ruddy as the tips of her ears turned darker. She smiled, quietly saying, “Thank you.”

“So what’s it like?” Erick asked. “[Witness], I mean.”

Teressa finished piling her plate high and came to the table, saying, “It’s like a memory playing out before you. Or watching a play, that you can move forward or backward at will. I’m still learning how to work the spell, but that’s just a matter of experience.” She flicked her eyes up and down, and a blue box floated into Erick’s vision. “Cheap to cast, too.”

Witness X, variable cast time, variable range, 25 mana

See the past.

Erick said, “It’s one of them intricate spells, I see.”

Kiri asked, “All it says is ‘See the past’, right?”

Teressa said, “Yup. It’s only as good as its caster.” She added, “But I can’t really talk about what I see in the line of duty, anyway. Guardmaster Merit already warned me of that responsibility to privacy.”

Poi walked into the room, floating a chest-sized barrel and a stand with him, saying, “Time for a little celebration.”

Erick smiled.

There was a small party. It was good.

- - - -

Everyone was asleep except for Erick. During their little celebration for Teressa, he had gotten a chance to continue his conversation about [Lightwalk] with Kiri. She didn’t have much of an opinion or knowledge about what [Lightwalk] was capable of, but she did suggest that he try out a lightward [Personal Ward], to see if he could duplicate the ‘unimpeded movement’ that he had experienced while under the sun. [Personal Ward]s weren’t able to duplicate all of the functions of many different Elemental Body skills, not without a lot of experimentation and unique [Personal Ward]s that would kill a person to operate them without the appropriate Body skill. But the lightward functionality should be an easy scenario to test.

It was a good suggestion. Erick was currently lying in bed, but he was also two [Teleport]s away, inhabiting Ophiel, shining bright under a midnight sky. Ophiel was currently wrapped in a glowing lightward, and because of that, he flew through that sky with all the grace and ability that Erick had experienced in the daytime.

He had tried [Lightwalk] without the glowing lightward [Personal Ward]. At night, [Lightwalk] basically froze Ophiel in place. It took dozens of mana to move even one meter. But with the personal lightward on, and [Lightwalk] active? It was like Erick was anywhere he wanted to be, for the barest of costs.

… In retrospect, this functionality of [Lightwalk] was painfully obvious. It was [Light-walk], not [Walk-wherever-you-want]. But still, to be able to prop up the ability for the spell to work basically anywhere that wasn’t through a solid surface? With just a personal lightward? That just seemed…

Interesting.

And with lots of possible implications. Erick couldn’t personally use this interaction. A non-Warder mage could only use one [Personal Ward] at a time, and Erick liked his 13,000 point [Personal Absorption Ward] more than he liked the idea of easy movement. But Ophiel couldn’t realistically use a [Personal Ward], anyway.

Erick inhabited Ophiel for a while longer, experimenting. He summoned a second Ophiel and sent that one blipping to the first, so he could see what the first Ophiel looked like. (Interestingly enough, the [Personal Lightward] on the first Ophiel did not blind him, because apparently no amount of light was blinding when already using [Lightwalk].)

The first Ophiel was a star that had descended to Veird, floating around like the world’s largest, most energetic firefly. Erick imbued [Invisibility] into the first Ophiel. The [Familiar] vanished from sight, but the bright halo given off by his lightward still floated around, illuminating the sky, catching on minuscule particles of sand blowing from the north.

That was enough experimenting, for now.

The pair of Ophiel blipped to their next destination.

The Hole was a hungry maw below Ophiel that sucked in all light. Sand trickled over the northern edge, falling into the Hole like tiny streams of water that quickly vanished into darkness. Even the lights of the three moons above were like vampires; unwelcome and disallowed in the Underworld.

Invisible, [Lightwalk] Ophiel, flew down first. Visible Ophiel followed. A third blipped in behind the pair, to remain in the air above the Hole, to provide a link to the other two. They wouldn’t explore for very long, but they would explore for a bit. Kiri’s tale got its hooks into Erick. He could do with some unknown threats trying to kill Ophiel; he needed to get better at surviving that sort of thing, just in case.

Ophiel descended. The edge of the Hole passed by. Even the midnight sky was brighter than the darkness down here. He expected the walls to be stone-colored, but they were black. Even Ophiel’s brightness seemed to soak into the very air, disappearing before it reached walls that seemed so far away. The walls were only a kilometer away, but that single kilometer seemed much larger than normal.

The wind was calm. Invisible Ophiel rode the light, while visible Ophiel rode the quiet wind. Both of them were utterly silent. Erick had expected a stronger breeze than this.

Erick journeyed down, riding the eyes and senses of his [Familiar]. Eventually, when the sky was a disk of blue barely brighter than the black walls, the walls became a slanted floor that was not black, but instead just dark rock. With two hundred eyes, and burning [Hunter’s Instincts], Erick was ready for anything. Ready to dodge, ready to evade; he wouldn’t kill any of the monsters here and he certainly wouldn’t harm the people, but he was ready to survive; to see if he could.

Ophiel flew across the bottom of a wide open space and continued onward, into darkness beyond. Quite a few hands must have transformed the land of the tunnel into a workable road; the bottom was flat, except for rocks and scree and sand here and there. As Ophiel flew further, the tunnel turned horizontal, but no less massive; his lightward failed to illuminate the stone overhead. Both Visible and Invisible Ophiel traveled in a bubble of light, like his own personal oasis from the oppressive, unmoving air. Erick felt the experience would have been oppressive if he had been there in person, but even so, the darkness seemed to eat at the light around Ophiel.

It wasn’t long before Erick passed the first signs of battle. Deep rents cut into the tunnel. Road turned to rubble. Slick rocks seemed covered in blood, but it was dark blood. Sticky and pooled and half dried. But there were no monsters. No shadowolves. No bodies of any sort.

He traveled further. The tunnel branched, and branched again. He picked the ones that led down.

Still no sign of other people or any monsters. If he had been traveling with anyone else, he would have joked that this was always the worst part of the horror movie.

He briefly came back to himself, with double vision. Ophiel must have been too far down the Hole. Erick summoned another two Ophiel and sent them blipping to the Hole, to solidify his connection to the forward pair.

With his connection reestablished, Erick wandered. Eventually, he ended up in a dead end; a cavern with no obvious way forward, and no obvious signs of life. Ophiel floated forward. Beyond a natural blind in the cavern, behind a minor rock slide to the side, laid a small pile of white bones. Erick paused over the bones. They were small, and likely not humanoid; the skulls were elongated like a dog's. They were likely the bones of shadowolves. So what ate them? What lived in this hole in the ground?

Erick did not find out. The cavern was empty. He backtracked. He continued to explore the empty Underworld.

He encountered nothing and no one.

But hard edged and slit-eyed, [Hunter’s Instincts] Ophiel, was unnaturally tuned into the wind, and his surroundings.

There were lots of things out there, in the darkness. They struggled to be silent. They huddled against the walls, vibrated in their own shadows, or under the crevices of rocks, keeping themselves out of sight and hopefully out of mind, trying to appear like anything but a meal.

Because occasionally, the flap of sails in the wind carried through the tunnels, as the Darkness flitted around Ophiel, watching.

Erick did not sleep that night.