Ar'Kendrithyst

An hour later, after putting up lightward after lightward, Erick took a break, because Calzin had gone to town and brought back hot sandwiches for everyone on the job site. The sandwiches were full of fish and spices. Poi loved them, but Kiri just eyed them.

Erick whispered to her, “We’ll get some good beef tonight. That haraah beef, maybe? If you want to head out for a while to pick some up at the market, you can. There’s a few grandrads left in the Manor. Buy whatever you want.”

Kiri smiled, saying, “That sounds wonderful.”

After lunch, Kiri went to the market. An hour later, she came back. Erick was still putting up lightwards on the first floor. It would take him another 7 hours to finish, and that was only if there weren’t any other interruptions. But there were. When the afternoon rolled around, and it was time to rain in Spur, Erick already had more than enough Ophiel to send them blipping across the ocean, so he sent them on their way, and continued to cast lightwards in the ceiling of the dungeon, while he also rained platinum on the farms. He had to slow down his creation of kaleidoscopic lightwards, but he kept it up. Kiri went back home to start making dinner.

Erick took another break to go back to Windy Manor and eat. It was delicious, like always, but Kiri had pulled out all the stops. She made potatoes and steaks and fire grilled vegetables. It was great.

And then Erick went back to the dungeon. He and Ophiel finished the first floor’s lights, 20 hours after Erick had first arrived on the scene. The time was somewhere after midnight, Kiri had already gone to the Manor, and Erick was exhausted. Poi wasn’t too happy either. The man never complained, but Erick could see it in the man’s shoulders. Erick wouldn’t work this hard tomorrow, but he needed to get one floor done.

Ophiel had no problem continuing. Eight Ophiel kept working throughout the night, following the pattern Erick had set down. They’d each individually drop 13 ultraviolet or infrared lightwards in the ceiling, exactly in the grid where they needed to go, before flying over to a [Prismatic Ward] Erick had cast into the second floor, to Rest. And then they’d do it all again, and again, and again.

With the casting of this new [Prismatic Ward] in the dungeon, the one over the Mage Trio’s house in Spur had dissipated. But that was okay. Erick had checked in with them, and they were a lot better now that they had gotten some good rest. Spur had even managed to oust Messalina’s worms from the town. Things were looking better in the Crystal Forest.

- - - -

When Erick showed up at the dungeon the next morning, which was actually closer to 10 am by the time he managed to drag himself out of bed, there was an issue. He had warned them yesterday, but that apparently didn’t matter. They hadn’t taken his warning seriously. Or maybe the message hadn’t gotten around. Or?

Oh. Or Erick didn’t prepare well enough. Honestly, this was his fault.

At least ten people sat around outside the dungeon, under stone awnings on the flat grey stone steps of the mountain, while doctors attended to them. They blinked long and hard, trying to see, but they could not, until a doctor came over to them and applied [Greater Treat Wounds]. Erick didn’t know them, but he guessed these people were the workers they had brought in to move the white stone into the dungeon.

Blocks and bags of white stone and rubble were layered like a minor avalanche waiting to happen, all down the steps of the dungeon's exterior. The shipment had come in, alright.

Calzin stood beside Apell, a little bit away, watching Ophiel hovering nearby. Eight Ophiel had worked all through the night, putting up infrared and ultraviolet lights. They hadn’t made it past the second floor, but they had gotten through most of it. Which meant—

Erick, Poi, and Kiri, blipped onto the grey stone near Apell and Calzin, near the Ophiel Erick had taken off of lighting duty. The others kept right on with their assigned tasks.

Apell shouted, “What the fuck, Erick.”

Erick instantly began, “If people are going blind, then they weren’t using the glasses I provided, and I told everyone this yesterday. I know I did.” He added, “But I also know I didn’t provide enough for all these extra workers. I’ll fix that, now.”

Apell glared.

Calzin frowned, muttering, “Is that what you meant?”

“Wait a second… Did you not believe me?”

Calzin winced, though Erick couldn’t really tell with only the lower half of Calzin’s face not covered by a mask.

Erick said, “Yes! That is what I meant. If you take your glasses off and you view blacklights directly, then you will go blind. Being as floor 2 is full of blacklights and heat lights, and I haven’t gotten the chance to make it actually blinding, means that everyone is taking off their sunglasses once they get past the first floor, aren’t they?”

This was Erick’s fault for not making enough sunglasses, or maybe he hadn’t explained the danger properly yesterday. Whatever the case, he wasn’t expecting a hundred extra people on the jobsite on day 3. So that was all on him.

Apell sighed out, “Yes. No one can work on floor 2 right now.” She added, “We need a lot more of those glasses. We tried putting up dark lightwards to counteract the blinding effect, but it just got worse. Dilating pupils, and such.”

Erick said, “We can solve this problem a few ways. I could just have Ophiel automate the whole dungeon light system with the spell I showed you, and I could lock dozens of them at a time behind maskingwards while people worked. This would have the added benefit of having the job done in...” He had worked out the math earlier, at home, with Kiri. He tried to remember all of it now.

2500 alcoves per floor, at 500 mana per alcove, meant both 1,250,000 mana per floor and 10 casts per Ophiel. They would have to retreat to a [Prismatic Ward] Erick would put in the center of the room every five minutes, and it would take 15 for them to fully regain their mana pools, which meant 1 rotation would take 20 minutes, meaning 3 rotations per hour.

That meant 30 flowers per Ophiel, per hour. At 8 Ophiel working full time, that meant 240 flowers per hour, meaning roughly 11 hours per floor. This meant that the remaining 9 floors could be done in under 5 days, instead of the current need for at least 135 more hours of Erick putting up kaleidoscopic lightwards himself; he was the bottleneck, here. 135 hours would take him 17 days, if he put in 8 hour days. He’d likely put in 12 hour days though, just to get it over with faster. That was still 12 days of work, though.

Erick said, “I could have this place fully lightwarded in five days, instead of the 12 to 18 days it would otherwise take.”

“Nope.” Apell said, “Absolutely not. No further experimenting in this location. Just stop Ophiel’s automation until you catch up with the ornate wardlights.”

“Fine.” Erick said, “Then I’ll make more sunglasses for the hundred people here, first. That’s gonna eat up more time.”

“That’s okay.” Apell said, “That’s what the Headmaster wants.”

Erick added, “Actually. I should just make some full-body sunlight wards, too. Something you could wear in your pocket and project a blocking lightmask out two meters in every direction.”

“None of that. I don’t know if you could do it, but I don’t want to test out your ability to make shadow slimes. Not here. Not ever.”

“Then put the [Ward]ed stones away from the light when you’re done. These blacklights cause cancer, too, so wearing a full body mask is good for the longevity of whoever is going to work here after we’re finished.”

“… Fair.” Apell said, “Then make some of those, too.”

Erick said, “I’ll get right on that.” He turned to Kiri. “Can you start working on the diamonds and setting aside the dust for them to work into the white stone? Do you need me to conjure you the masks I showed you?”

Kiri said, “I can do the masks. But...” She pointed north, toward the pond Erick had made yesterday, where the diamonds had been growing. “Uh.”

Erick turned to look with her. The pond he had made yesterday, and all the diamonds, were gone. In their place were piles and piles of white stone. He turned back toward Apell. He drawled out, “Soooo? Where’d they all goooo?”

Apell frowned.

Calzin said, “Someone stole them.”

Suddenly exasperated, Erick said, “Oh holy fuck. Really? There were thousands of them!” More miffed than angry, Erick spat, “Shit. Fine. I can make more.”

Apell rapidly said, “The Headmaster sent an Elite after the thieves. Some headhunter. I don’t know who. But the Headmaster won’t allow something like this to go unchallenged. We might not get back the stones, but we’ll get whoever did this.”

Erick whiplashed from unfocused anger to feeling cold, even in the sun. He said, “He’s going to execute the thieves, isn’t he?”

“Yes.” Apell scrunched her face, disbelieving Erick’s tone, or something. Erick wasn’t quite sure. She said, “That is what usually happens in a situation like this. Whoever it was must have been desperate or very, very well connected.”

Erick suddenly found himself on the side of the thieves, saying, “You know the spell I used to make the diamonds is going to be in the Script in something like 9 months? It’s not a big deal if they get stolen. They’re literally the easiest thing to make in the world.” Erick said, “I’m only upset because Spur is under attack, and I can’t go back unless this job is done.”

Apell frowned. “… I’ll tell the Headmaster. He might not retract his sentence. Or he might do something else.” She relented, “I don’t know. It’s out of my hands, Erick. When people steal from dragons, they die. Everyone knows that. Doesn’t matter if it’s books or dirt, gold or rads.” She added, “This has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

“… I didn’t know that.” Erick turned toward Poi and Kiri, including them in the conversation as he asked, “Is that really true?”

Everyone just looked at Erick like he was an idiot, except Poi.

Erick spat out, “None of you know how to make these lights. I don’t know a lot of your cultures. Take it easy with these condemnations of idiocy. It’s getting really fucking tiring.”

Apell said, “Sorry. Did not mean to offend.”

Erick immediately said, “It’s not you.” Erick felt drained. He said, “Sorry, Apell. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He looked to the dungeon entrance, and to the people under stone overhangs, waiting for the doctor to walk around and heal them. He said, “I’ve got [Ward]s to make. Did you get that shipment of metal in, too?”

Calzin spoke up, saying, “Yes! It’s four steps down.” He gestured toward the mountainside. “Down there. Can’t miss it.”

“I’ll have sunglasses made soon enough.” Erick added, “And more diamonds.”

Apell said, “Thanks, Erick.”

- - - -

A new pond full of new water soon had new diamonds growing in them, with eight Ophiel doing their thing, casting exactly how Erick wanted them to cast. They sang as they worked under the power of a [Prismatic Ward]; a chorus of violins and harps sounding out of dense air.

It was a nice sound. It made Erick feel a bit better about his situation.

Nearby, Erick pulled metal into sunglass frames. His previous design for the masklights to go on them worked well enough to fully cover the front of the eyes and even set into the skin a bit, to provide full coverage, so he kept the design the same. Making these was much simpler than the kaleidoscope lightwards, but it still took him an hour to make 150 of them. His regeneration was the bottleneck, again. The sunglasses were handed out as they were made.

Work resumed.

Kiri shaped new diamonds into glittering dust, firstly. Kilograms and kilograms of diamond dust journeyed into the dungeon alongside massive, hovering crates of white stone. Four workers worked together to lift the white stone and the diamond dust into the air. They mixed the white stone and the diamonds into a huge, floating orb, then they took the stone apart, each taking a quarter of the tonnage to then paint the dungeon white and glittery; a thin, solid layer of white that they locked into the grey and tan stone underneath. It was not just a breakable veneer of stone, but more like a weld.

Kiri continued to shape diamonds into dust, but when there was enough diamond dust for the first five floors, and not enough people putting down white, she started cutting the diamond octahedrons in half. With a novice’s touch that was quickly improving, Kiri shaped each of those halves into basic brilliant-cut diamonds, with a flat top and a reflective bottom. Light shone in from the top then reflected back out when she did it right. They were perfect for setting into the walls and into the floor; the slimes loved shiny things, after all.

Down on floor 2, Erick cast kaleidoscopic lights into the arched ceiling.

They broke for lunch. Calzin got sandwiches for everyone, again. They continued working till it was time for Erick to break to rain on Spur. Erick, Poi, Kiri, Teressa, and Rats, all had an early dinner in Jane’s room. She was still sleeping, but Alibeth, the Mind Mage doctor, brought her out of her [Sleep] for her daily checkup while Erick was there.

She began vomiting immediately. She asked to be put back under, though she did say hello to everyone. Erick watched Jane fall back asleep, feeling horrible about everything, as thick air cleaned up the mess she had made.

[Sleep] enforced a Rest state on its recipient, and Jane was being fed while she was asleep, so she was okay, and she was healing. But it was still rough for Erick to see his daughter like this.

Then he went back to the dungeon. He stayed there well past nightfall and then a few more hours in, but he would not spend another late night like before. He went home in the dark, while people were still putting down glittering white stone over the greys and tans of the natural dungeon walls.

Erick had briefly checked on his original dungeon every day with Ophiel, if for nothing else than to just renew the [Gravity Ward] that fed the river of the dungeon floor. He did so again, today. Through Ophiel’s eyes, the [Gravity Ward] was working just fine; Erick renewed the spell, anyway. But when he checked on the actual dungeon floor, there were easily four dozen light slimes or more, bumbling this way and that, but generally moving in a large circle around the dungeon floor.

Like some huge skating rink, light slimes glittered in rainbow light, as they circled the center.

And in the center, floating above the waters of the main pool, was a woman made of white light, wearing rainbows for clothes, like billowing clouds. She could have been of any people; human, incani, orcol or dragonkin. Maybe even wrought, but Erick somehow doubted that. Maybe she was a harpy, or a shifter. Whatever the case, she was an intruder of some sort, and her eyes were open, and staring at Erick, through his connection to Ophiel.

In a blink, Erick stood in the dungeon, and it wasn’t blinding without his sunglasses.

“Ah.” Erick checked his Status. It did not come up. He asked, “Dream Wormed?”

“Yes.” The woman said, “I’m Messalina, the Life Binder. I think it is past time I talked with you, directly.”

He was likely already being tended to by Poi, and he was close enough to the hospital that, even if they couldn’t [Teleport] him there without his conscious consent, they could certainly get other people to him. So Erick rolled with this confrontation. He said, “Your worms have killed people. Your plots are murderous. You appear before me in a dazzling, probably fake way. You’re obviously a very fake person. Why should I listen to whatever lies you feel like spinning?”

“Because if you do not, then I will have no choice but to go to Melemizargo for help.”

“Lie.”

Undeterred, Messalina said, “He’s growing much more cognizant as new magic is being invented everywhere.” She added, “He’s not insane anymore. Most of his Shades aren’t, either. They purged those using Yetta as an excuse.”

“Half-truth. Likely just enough true to try and get me to believe you, but I won’t. I’m going to have to be stubborn about this, all the way to everyone’s deaths, if I have to.”

Messalina, all bright white and floating rainbows, frowned. It was like the world turned two shades darker. She stepped down from the air, to stand upon the water in front of Erick. She said, “Let me prove it to you, then. Set for me a task.”

“Nope.” Erick said, “One task completed does not make you worthy of redemption. You dream wormed the people in town. Turock and Veel, people who were staying with my daughter and looking after my house, [Defend]ed themselves to death because of your influence.”

Messalina laughed, saying, “Now that is untrue.”

Erick frowned at her. He did not ask for a clarification.

Messalina said, “Fine. I can have this conversation without you, but it seems I must add certain words that you can go ahead and verify on your own.” She said, “The Lower Trademaster of Portal and I worked together for a period of one month, maybe 35 days, to try and find the people who killed my people. I gave him dream worms as a part of this agreement. He has spread them far and wide, in order to increase his own influence—”

“And that doesn’t bother you!” Suddenly incensed, Erick said, “Taking that at face value —and holy shit is that a hard thing to take— you allowed your magic to go wherever others wanted it to go? You allowed your mind controlling worms—”

Messalina’s face flared into anger. “I do NOT mind control people! I do not pinch at souls. I do not do anything to the free will of anyone, anywhere!”

Erick glared at her, saying, “Lie.”

Messalina’s eyes went wide. She suddenly cooled, like a volcano stuffed back into the ground, and said, “You invented a new magic. Is your circumstance not the same as mine?”

“Absolutely not.” Erick said, “I didn’t invent anything. It’s already all there. None of you managed to see it, is all. Even if I did believe your story— Do you expect me to think that you giving out mind controlling parasites is the same as me giving out knowledge?”

“Yes. They are. A hundred percent the same. But I can argue from your position if you want, because when Caradogh decided to use my mind freeing worms to control people, I cut him off.” She said, “Normally, they don’t control people. Normally, they allow recipients to quest for their personal truths in the safety of their dreams. But that great boon is also an unavoidable weakness. They open up people to the possibilities all around them, and when this is used in the wrong way, you get victims like Turock and Veel.” She said, “Those two were not Caradogh’s only victims. But I discovered the problem too late and he had already spread my magic far and wide. If you have a problem with him using my gifts, then take it up with him.”

“Fine.” Erick said, “I don’t believe you right now, and probably not ever. But I will check up on all of that. Continue.”

Messalina nodded. She said, “Kirginatharp is dangerous—”

“I certainly won’t believe you about him. Try another tactic.”

“Then I will simply say this: Has he ever touched upon a spell you created, holding long to the release of the blue box? Has he ever threatened your life? Has he ever made a list of Pros and Cons to decide your fate? Has he ever threatened the lives of your loved ones, perhaps by standing over their bleeding forms while you begged him for help?”

“That last one sounds personal.”

“… It was.”

“Lie.” Erick said, “Sorry. No sympathy for the killer, here. You have killed people in Spur, and you killed those people in the villages on your way to Eidolon.”

Messalina started with, “Firstly: I gave power to people and then they used it wrong. The Flare Couatl was never under my control, but he did see you talking about killing him the next time you met. I will not accept responsibility for the actions of a free man who was only looking to protect himself. And besides!” Half incredulous, she said, “Really? No sympathy at all? With all your ideology of helping ‘the dregs of society turn their lives around’? This has no bearing on me, who just lashed out because my entire world was taken from me?”

Erick said, “So you know me. So what? You’ve obviously listened to me talk about you, and there’s something to be said about you being open about that as opposed to trying to hide it. But. You already know all my buttons. As does the Headmaster, I’m sure.” Erick said, “So go ahead and bring on the threats. I know you have a dozen lying in wait for this part of the conversation.”

“I prefer the carrot.” She said, “I can heal your daughter’s Disintegrated Dragon Essence in three moments, if you produce the spell to find the people who killed my village.”

Erick felt his anger bloom like a darkness rising from the bottom of the ocean. He calmly said, “Stay away from my daughter.”

Messalina, all bright and rainbow, sighed out, “That was not a threat. That was an offer of assistance.”

Silence stretched between the two of them, while light slimes bumbled around the room and water splashed.

“Haven’t you already found those people?” Erick said, “The Headmaster said that there was no way you had not found them by now.”

Messalina barked a single laugh, then she said, “That Old Dragon. He can’t find me, but he expects me to have found my own quarry? We’re both using the same damn spell, Erick. I learned it from him! [Eyes of the Goddess].”

Erick paused. He had no idea what to say to that.

Messalina continued, “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

“I know both less and more than you.”

She laughed again. “True! So let me fill you in on a little history—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

Messalina smiled, all teeth and anger, as she said, “But you will.”

Erick almost said something, but he couldn’t speak. He could only listen.

“Kirginatharp and I were the two sides of a schism in the Arcanaeum Consortium that began 350 years ago, but the whole thing erupted into violence soon enough. The only reason I retreated to the jungles of Nergal was because I voluntarily lost, because to continue the fight was to plunge the world into darkness.

“The world has forgotten that fight because I have allowed him to dictate the terms of my surrender, but I have been deeply wronged by the Cinnabar Hand, and Kirginatharp has chosen to fight me, instead of help. So allow me to break this very old bargain of trade now, and tell the truth of that fight.

“I was apprenticed to That Dragon for 30 years, but even in the beginning it was so much more than that. I learned everything from him. We even had children. Melemizargo ate those children, like all dragons do whenever someone is born three generations removed from the one who began their lineage, and the great grandfathers or mothers discover the progeny. But I brought them back with necromancy, and without the taint of dragon essence, too! That was the start of my involvement in the schism that would shake the very foundations of Oceanside, and every Arcanaeum on Veird.”

Erick listened. He couldn’t help it. Either the dream was trapping him here, or her words were powerful. And had she just implicated that the Headmaster was Melemizargo’s grandson? Did that mean that Rozeta was Kirginatharp’s mother? Or at least an aunt? Whatever the case, as Messalina spoke, dark lines, tears or black blood, fell from Messalina’s glowing eyes, to trace lines of darkness down her pained face. Her voice choked as she forced a long held torment to the surface.

“Kirginatharp was the one who showed me necromancy. He knows every magic there is. But when I used it to bring back our children, he cast me out. He wouldn’t even entertain the possibility that my necromancy was different.

“And it was, Erick.” Her entire radiant body seemed to brighten. “I had done it. I brought back people from death, whole and unharmed. Memories intact. Soul unblemished. True Resurrection! I had done the impossible. And I had damned myself in his eyes. He tried to kill me, but I managed to flee with my kids.

“In the years to come, I traveled the world, hiding from everyone, raising my children on my own, doing what I needed to do to survive. Years turned to decades. I thought I was free of That Dragon. But a chance meeting with one of Kirginatharp’s Elites in the highlands of Nelboor led That Dragon back into my life. His children had grown...

She spoke with restrained anger. “He said he wanted to reconnect. He knew my children were grown, and whole, and pure of soul. They were not abominations. They were genuine, and they were without a single drop of natural draconic essence, therefore they were not a target of Melemizargo. And it surprised him. He had never been able to have children before, because that Dark Dragon always killed them. But he saw my kids— his children! He saw them as a possible future. A future of happiness, with kids and grandkids and a whole linage. A future!

“I foolishly believed him. All three of us believed him. When the three of us showed for the meeting, it was a trap.

“He took them from me. He ripped their souls from their bodies in order to understand how I had done what I had done.” She stopped. Moments passed. She wiped the black lines of blood or whatever it was from her face. The darkness vanished from her radiant skin like so much flaking ash.

She continued, “Originally, I had been all for That Dragon’s iron fist wrapped around Veird; holding civilizations together and bringing warmagics to bear against the monsters.” She spoke flippantly, “And all the time, I saw the small things he did to me, but I didn’t care. When he intercepted a spell I had worked on before it could come to me, I thought nothing of it. When he demanded concessions for the good of Civilization, I gave in. When he demanded unequal bargains of trade, what did I care? I was doing good to help him do good to help the whole world.” She said, “I gave myself to him, Erick. Body and mind and soul. And he took it all. But then he took my children, and that was it. I would take everything from him.

“And so I went to war.” She said, “I contacted his detractors in the Arcanaeum Consortium, for people in power always have detractors. I gave True Resurrections to people he had killed, raising co-conspirators from ash. I controlled minds. Eventually, I maimed souls. I put people together wrong, all for the glory of That Dragon’s downfall.

“That section of my life lasted two months. And then I undid all I had done. If I was to win this war, I was going to win it right. I wiped some memories, and put some people back in the ground who were too evil to live. For all his faults, That Dragon is sometimes right about some things.

“With free will, and with plots and partners, we planned Kirginatharp’s downfall from Second to Rozeta. We wanted to teach the magic that would give True Resurrection to the people. Kirginatharp wanted that magic buried and gone. I had a much more personal reason for fighting, but I believed in the greater cause, too.

“In the end, seven arcanaeums out of fifty five joined our side, of their own free will.

“There was a war. Islands sunk. Oceanside broke. Thousands died, and the darker forces of the world, the Shades and the Ancients, they were beginning to move to take advantage of the schism.

“I ended the fight that would have torn civilization apart. I betrayed my people to do it. Not everyone survived, but I am a necromancer with the secret of True Resurrection, and he is just an old dragon sitting on his pile of gold. The collateral damage was immense.

“Kirginatharp still lays those deaths at my feet. He says I killed them. I did not. He is the one who started it all when he killed our children.

“When everything was over, I picked up what was left. I asked the souls that he had reaped if they wanted to stay dead. I gave True Resurrection to over half of them; to five thousand people, to five thousand students and professors and warriors and mages who only wanted to use magic that had already proven itself as real. All of us went into exile, into the jungles of Nergal. Those five thousand people were the first generation of my village.

Her voice turned hard, as she said, “And six months ago, I had 10,000 people, some of the old guard, some of the new; working, living, and just being in my village, when those hunters from the Cinnabar Hand came. They were hunting for levels. They got them. And now, I hunt for them.

“I have given up my conquest of That Dragon. I laid my hatred aside a long time ago. But he hasn’t.

“He can’t.

“For at the height of our war, I foolishly tried to upset his position as Second. I hunted dragons for sport, and ate them whole. I unlocked the highest tiers of Dragon Essence.” She said, “For him, that was a threat on a fundamental level. But I lost that war. So I died for my sins of standing up to power. I got better, obviously. And without the dragon essence this time, just as I had done for my children. But his own essence compels him to dominate me, no matter if I have no essence anymore.

“He could let me live without interference. He could make amends by giving me the souls of my children. He could help me find these people who killed my people.

“But he doesn’t.

“Because once he makes a proclamation, he never wavers, no matter the cost."

She stared at Erick, with eyes of light and surrounded by rainbows. She said, “I have said my piece. You could have read most of this in the letter I gave you, but I can see the wisdom in not accepting my words as truth.” She added, “Do what you want, but know that Kirginatharp is a killer, just like you think I am. But That Dragon has managed to win every war he has ever waged, and teach his history in every Arcanaeum the world over.”

A long moment passed, while Erick stood on the side of the pool, thinking, and Messalina stood on top of the water; a woman made of light and color. Light slimes continued to bumble around the room, counterclockwise around the pool in the center; around Erick and Messalina. Erick felt his mind relax.

Erick asked, “What would he do if I asked for the souls of your children to give them to you?”

Messalina quickly went through several obvious emotions. Hatred, utter and complete. Hope. And finally, reluctantly accepted pain. With a fallen smile, she said, “He would be very angry. Then he would deny he has them. He would say they were destroyed, or some nonsense.”

Erick asked, “Could you two work on the same side, to kill the Shades?”

“No.” Messalina said, “Never again. I cannot ever trust That Dragon.”

“You spoke of a spell he held from you. What did he do to that spell?”

Messalina spoke like she was opening an old, soft wound, “He intercepted a tier 8 summoning spell. The resulting person would have been the start of the return of the Elementassi to Veird. They were a race of sapient elementals. They would be able to walk the land and fly the skies, and to help drive back the monsters, to help win the Real War against Melemizargo. That did not happen. Instead, I got a creature that was an automatic Slave. It tried to kill me, even after I went through the rituals to magically emancipate the thing.” She said, “It was a perfect spell. I had not accidentally created a slave in twenty years. My spell should have worked. It didn’t. And the only clue I had to how it went wrong, was the three minute delay from the summoning of the creature, to getting the box, because Kirginatharp was there, looking at the blue box first.”

“How did the people who attacked your town manage to kill everyone and reap their souls? Where were your defenses?”

Messalina chuckled. She said, “I was sleeping, and they targeted my champions first. It took the Cinnabar Hand ten minutes to turn my jungle into a crater. Sometimes, that’s all it takes for ten thousand people to die.”

“I was told you killed everyone on the way to Eidolon, searching for the killers. What about them?”

“I gave them new bodies, too. Later. Wynding talked some sense into me before I got too far in my wrath. I had known her since she was a babe in her mother’s arms.” Messalina said, “But they’re all dead again, Wynding too, because no one believes in True Resurrection. Kirginatharp’s people hunted down each one and put them to the sword, thinking that they would fall to monsterfication and become cannibals.”

“Thank you. This is a lot to think on.” Erick said, “I would like to be released from this vision, now.”

Messalina looked at him. “What is your decision about this [Scan] spell?”

“I told your Flare Couatl the truth. I don’t know if I can, or even how I would.”

Messalina stared at him, slightly frowning. She said, “The Flare Couatl’s name was Oyil. He was my Captain of the Guard for a hundred years. Yiralia was his wife. While he chose to become a knight, she chose to become a monster, instead. With her whole life gone, Yiralia was tired of being a person. She just wanted to kill hunters, so she chose the body of the Toxic Hydra.”

The world flickered.

- - - -

Erick came around slowly to the sounds of ten tiny flutes, like a chorus of birds chirping in the morning.

Poi said, “Easy there. You were heavily wormed. Everything is going to feel weird. You had a prolonged out-of-body experience. I’m putting you back together but it will take time.”

Erick blinked. He was in a hospital bed. The sun shone down outside. He rolled—

Poi caught him, then pushed him back onto the bed.

Erick laid there this time, taking in his surroundings. He was in a bed, under a blanket. Jane was sleeping in her own bed, two meters from him. Poi stood there, between him and his daughter, while Teressa stood to the side of the room, and Kiri stood at the feet of his bed.

Ten Ophiel, all tiny, leapt and played on top of Erick’s covered body, jumping from his feet poking up from the blanket, to his stomach, to the headboard behind him. They trilled in flutes and a few tiny harp sounds as their eyes and jumbles of wings moved freely around their bodies.

He must have been wormed before he could dismiss all but one of them.

Erick smiled at the Ophiel… Or… He tried to smile. He lifted a hand to touch his face and smacked himself across the chin. He mumbled, “Waaa.”

“Your mind is coming back to you. Your body is catching up.” Poi said, “You might be like this for an hour but it’ll get better.”

Kiri spoke up, trying to be chipper, “You’ll be fine. Alibeth and the other doctors think so. They healed you up well.”

Erick checked his Status, and sure enough, the blue boxes came to him. He shoved those away with a mental command. He sent to Poi and Kiri, ‘How long was I out?’

Kiri sent, ‘Eight hours. Maybe. The Headmaster visited.’

‘I’ll need to talk to him when I’m better.’

Poi sent, ‘He wants to talk to you, too.’