Ar'Kendrithyst

“Congrats on the sun. How much did you learn about Nothanganathor?”

They hadn’t been in the booth for more than a second. As soon as the privacy magics went up Shadow got right to business. She was moving fast.

Erick was right there with her. “I learned he’s on the list of approved evils of Margleknot, and that he was sent to the Painted Cosmology in order to find out what happened to Margleknot’s Painted Cosmology extension of himself, and then the Sundering happened, and now he’s Arbiter of Veird. That timeline is measured in thousands of years, I am sure.

“I’m around 90% sure that the people here do not know that Nothanganathor caused the Sundering, and I have no idea if they know that Nothanganathor is corralling Veird in order to take Melemizargo’s Mantle of the God of Magic for some reason. I’m not sure how you people don’t know that, but that’s the impression I get.” Erick added, “There’s a lot more, but it’s rather nuanced. I got a Margleknot-created report on my own life, which should highlight a lot of what went down on Veird, which I am rather sure that a lot of people got, too, but it’s missing all of the specifics of Nothanganathor. I’m rather certain that that is because Margleknot still has a dedicated agreement with Nothanganathor for the knowledge he was supposed to find, which he never did, so he cannot work against Nothanganthor directly.”

Shadow listened, the gloom around her deepening as Erick spoke, and then turning absolutely Dark when he mentioned the Sundering. When Erick finished, she was composed again, as she said, “The shape of Nothanganathor’s general story is fully known in these lands, though no one believes he caused the Sundering. That I was never able to fully prove to the Enclave. I doubt you will be able to prove it either. I doubt they will even accept your testimony since you are not originally from Veird.”

Erick asked, “What’s up with that, anyway?”

Shadow controlled her anger, and said, “Until a True Wizard naturally arises from a quarantined land, then those lands remain quarantined. Veird is quarantined because it is the survivor of a True Sundering, and Nothanganathor is the Arbiter because…” She frowned. She said, “Because he’s my great, great, hundred-great grandson, and I never cared for Margleknot or this universe or the Fae Enclave here, and so I failed to care enough about the bureaucracy of this land. When the Sundering happened, Nothanganathor was already there, gathering all the parts of the Painted Cosmology that fell into this universe in order to contain whatever problem it was that caused the Sundering. ‘Containing universal destructions’ are an extension of the original duties he took for himself, to discover the cause of the loss of the ‘Margleknot’s world tree’ —Pah! He shouldn’t have had that duty. We had had many surviving True Wizards. They should have been allowed to take over Veird, but Nothanganathor killed them all… though I was never able to prove that, either.”

Erick sat back in his chair. Fury swirled in his heart, mind, and soul, but it was a distant sort of fury.

He had a think.

He figured out his first question rather fast.

Erick looked at Shadow, saying, “You know what caused the loss of Margleknot’s link to the Painted Cosmology, don’t you.”

“No. Actually. I do not.” Shadow sniped, “Because there never was a Margleknot connection to my Painted Universe! It was a separate freaking universe, Erick. It had no connection at all to this one!”

Yggdrasil slipped into the booth with them, already looking furious, saying, “Untrue! Planars existed as they always have, and I had a part of me in there—”

Shadow sniped at him, “No natural connection! People crossed over all the time, and you slipped a person into my universe, you fucker. That’s common as shit, though! Happens to every universe out there! And you have a part of you everywhere, you damned Old Roots! You didn’t have a powerful version of yourself in my universe at all! I didn’t let you!”

“And maybe! If you would have! The Sundering never would have happened!” Margleknot said, “I stabilize universes!”

“You control universes! You’re an extension of the Old Fae bastards who we got away from!”

“I help your kind, fairy, and all others—” Margleknot suddenly restrained his anger. He sighed, as though this was an old argument that he never wanted to have. “I have always helped everyone I could.”

Shadow wiped away an unruly tear, marring her face with black as she controlled her voice, asking, “Is Erick’s testimony that Nothanganathor caused the Sundering enough to remove him from Arbiter?”

“… No. He’s not from Veird; he only grew there. Erick has no proof. No one has any proof. All the information we have is circumstantial evidence of Nothanganathor rolling back time when people got close to the Sundering Source, and he’s going to claim that he was simply preventing the apocalypse of your Painted Cosmology from spreading.” Yggdrasil explained to Erick, “He is Malevolence, and Malevolence is pointed toward bad ends, so all he has to do is avoid those bad ends in order to keep contained whatever caused the Sundering. He also uses Malevolence to keep himself in power, because the ‘bad ends’ it causes is ‘bad for everyone, in a way that benefits him’.” Yggdrasil looked to Shadow, adding, “The creation of Malevolence is why this one is probably completely at fault for the destruction of her own universe, though that’s never been proven either.”

Shadow’s eyes went from normal, grey-ish eyes, to absolute pools of Darkness as she slammed her fists on the table, shadows spilling out from everywhere around her. Her voice was an abyss as she said, “I did not destroy my universe.”

“Take it down a notch,” Yggdrasil spoke, with even more authority.

The air cleared.

Lyra briefly appeared around the corner of a pillar on the otherwise-empty floor of the tavern. She looked ready to give someone a talking-to; probably Erick, Shadow, and Yggdrasil. And then she saw who was sitting at her table, making the fuss, and she turned right back around.

Erick returned to the conversation, saying, “I’m not going to be taken seriously by the Fae Enclave with regard to their decision to empower Nothanganathor.”

“No,” said Shadow. “You’re a planar. You’re already far down on the list of respected people.”

“… What?” Erick asked, completely unsure what the heck Shadow even meant.

“You didn’t come up from a single location,” Shadow explained. “It makes your achievement less of an achievement.”

“You need to see them and be denied, and then you might have more options,” Yggdrasil said.

“Okay. Sure? How did I end up on Veird, anyway? Planars happen. How? Exactly?”

Shadow waved a hand, saying, “They happen! It’s magiphysics.”

Yggdrasil said, “Maybe focus on the current problem.”

Erick… allowed that digression. “Sure.” He asked, “So what’s the story of Malevolence?”

Yggdrasil looked to Shadow, as though waiting for her to lie.

Shadow narrowed her eyes at Yggdrasil, then said to Erick, “When Melemizargo’s mother, Ikaramaliana, chose to become One With The Dark and pass on the Mantle of Magic to a successor, there was a contest of strength. This is always how it is. Melemizargo prevailed. Nothanganathor did not, and he was an ass the entire tournament, and now we’re here.”

Yggdrasil gave her a ‘really?’ sort of look, then said, “And when Nothanganathor lost that contest for godhood Melemizargo cursed him, stripping him of his mana signature and his ability to ascend. So Nothanganathor grew wider rather than denser, becoming the sun-spanning never-god that envelops Veird’s sun. He is cursed to never ascend in any way, but he has as much strength as any world tree or proper ascended, which is a lot.”

“… Ah. So that’s a lot of theories confirmed.” And reasons for those theories. Erick said, “This whole time, this has been personal. This Sundering had always been a trap for Melemizargo, specifically. But Melemizargo needs some people in order to survive and for his godhood to remain intact, so Nothanganathor controls Veird to allow that, and to make people try and overthrow Melemizargo all the time. If Melemizargo ever let go of his mantle, for any reason, then Veird would instantly die, because Nothanganathor would surely intercept that exchange, and thus he would no longer have a need for the planet.”

Erick was furious all over again.

Shadow nodded. “I’ve never been able to prove it. He always lies so well in court.”

“What makes Melemizargo’s godhood special?”

“Nothing at all,” Shadow said, lying.

Yggdrasil lied too, shrugging as he said, “Not much.”

… Okay fine.

Erick went ahead and laid out the gist of his entire next train of thought, “When did your world tree person vanish, Yggdrasil? And did Nothanganathor eat it, taking that power for his own, in order to grow so large?”

Shadow widened her eyes at Yggdrasil in a very ‘Yeah! Tell us, asshole!’ sort of way.

And then she said, “Yeah! Tell us, asshole!”

Yggdrasil frowned at Shadow, then said, “About 9,000 years pre-sundering, so 10,450-ish Veird-time, is when a piece of myself died in the Painted Cosmology.”

“So about a thousand years after Melemizargo cursed Nothanganathor to obscurity?” Erick asked, to be sure. “Since Melemizargo was God of Magic for 10,000 years before the Sundering.”

“Like 9,900, but yes,” Shadow said.

“Yes,” Yggdrasil said. “That’s the correct-ish timeline.”

Erick looked to them both, saying, “I’m going to try for an injunction against Nothanganathor to take Arbiter of Veird from him, and if that fails, then I’m going to try something else. Yggdrasil. Could you please… I don’t know...” Erick felt his Lightning Path flicker and focus. “Direct the Benevolence to finding people who might make good lawyers among the rescued populace?”

Yggdrasil said, “I can’t do much in that direction, but I can give you some messages if anyone pops up. I don’t do directed control of anything like that; that would be interfering. You should hire some prognosticators to do that for you. There are some at the Celestial Observatory. And with that said: Can you leave Shadow and I to discuss something in private?”

“… Ah?” Erick paused.

Shadow stared at Yggdrasil, then frowned, and said, “I suppose we’re done for the moment, Erick, and Margleknot never speaks to me. I would like to accept his offer, and meet with you at your house later.”

Erick nodded. “Then I suppose I know enough for now.” Erick took one last gulp of his very nice beer, then hugged Yggdrasil.

Yggdrasil smiled, hugging him back. “Thank you, Father.”

Erick said, “I don’t really know anything, and the more I learn the more I realize I know nothing, but I do know I want peace and prosperity for Veird and to open them up to the greater universe. I also know I want to help as many other people as I can, but Veird comes first.” He pulled away from his son. “And I know you’re keeping so very many things away from me, guiding me toward them on my own time. I know that one of those hidden truths is massive. The Big One. When the greater danger is done, we’ll talk about this propensity of yours toward machinations and plotting of family, instead of just talking. I’m fine with not knowing the Big Truth for now, but I want to know it eventually.”

Yggdrasil’s face fell slightly. “I’m a lot more experienced than you are right now, Father. I know what I’m doing.”

“And I trust you. I’m also telling you that I am seeing things that concern me. I love you, Yggdrasil… and Margleknot.”

Yggdrasil smiled softly, then said, “It’s so easy for you to love weirdness and people you don’t quite trust or know, isn’t it.”

“Yes. Love is easy for me. I love you, my son.”

“I love you, too, father.”

Erick smiled. And then he gave his beer to Yggdrasil. “I only drank some of it. It’s pretty good! I’d like a portal to the Celestial Observatory, please.”

Yggdrasil happily took the beer and a portal opened to the side. Shadow, meanwhile, stared at the whole little conversation like a fish gasping for air.

Erick left behind a very flustered Shadow who rapidly reoriented on Margleknot, her entire demeanor changing into something more Dark, as Margleknot became something more Fractal. Erick imagined, for some reason, they were both representing Others in that moment. Or at least that’s what his intuition was telling him.

And then the portal—

- - - -

— closed behind him.

Erick did a few things rapidly. He looked around himself, he checked his reson wallet, and then he tried to reconcile what he knew with what he had just heard.

The land around him was clouds and distant crystal mountains and stars up above. Those distant mountains were sort of like Ar’Kendrithyst, actually, the entire crystal mountain made of white and blue spires. Here and there in those crystal cities, were domes. Those domes had crystal columns poking out of them. Those had to be the observatories of this land, this Celestial Observatory. Each individual mountain was connected by wide, solid sky bridges, too.

Erick stood upon one of those middle-of-the-sky bridges, far away from two different crystal-spire mountains.

Other than that, the land was rather understandable as disconnected mountain cities above the clouds, and lots of green valley lands below the sparse clouds, filled with even more cities that seemed much more rustic and normal. Roads. Rivers. Stone walls. People walking around at markets. Etcetera.

This land was a lot bigger than just one place. It was an entire world.

What Erick noticed most of all, was that the mountains and the clouds seemed never ending in the distance, but the general shape was an outward, downward flow, like Erick was on top of a very large sphere. No sun above this sphere, though; just stars in a night-blue sky.

The entire land sort of glowed white and blue. The bottoms of the clouds out there glowed sunshine-white, bathing that green land in sunlight, for sure. It was a land without a sun, and it was truly beautiful.

It felt like a sort of heaven.

Erick took in his local area. He was atop a kilometers-wide sky bridge between two mountains, just above the clouds. The mountain of crystal spires in front of him was massive. The mountain behind him less so. No one was on this bridge at all, so Erick kinda wondered why Yggdrasil had put him down here, but he figured it was for a good reason… And then he thought back to how Yggdrasil was obviously hiding stuff and purposefully guiding Erick in certain ways.

And like, yeah. You do that for your parents. You help them out when they don’t know better. ‘Oh son, I can’t figure out the remote control or how to connect to the internet. Can you help?’ ‘Sure, dad. Let me do it for you.’

… Erick should be less mad about that. Maybe he should even apologize to Yggdrasil.

He should probably apologize.

Erick started walking toward the bigger mountain. It was a good walk, because it gave him more time to think, and more time to let time make some more resons for his wallet. He had only had his wallet for maybe 2 hours so far, and it had helped him a lot already. Were other people able to requisition resons from Margleknot’s bank? Erick assumed so. But Erick’s wallet was usable in all parts of this universe and others, so he was glad he had made it.

He was currently sitting pretty at 3.8 resons per second; self-created.

Resons: 22,973 [+34 = +3.8]

Minus the few thousand he spent with Lyra —which seemed like a really good investment, now that Erick was thinking about it more and more— he was sitting pretty.

Lyra was obviously a ‘Knowledge Mage’ sort of person. A good person to know, and to be friendly with, even if her entry in Yggdrasil’s book labeled her as an elven thief. She obviously sold information to other people, and that was probably a knock against her, but maybe she would find some good contacts for Erick to use to combat Nothanganathor? Seemed a high possibility. He’d have to go back and ask her about that.

Erick hoped whatever that special reson-crystal he gave her would help her how she needed. Erick still wasn’t sure what he did there, exactly. Probably something that would fully help one person out? Maybe imbue them with Benevolent Luck? … That might be exactly it.

Anyway.

Nothanganathor had tried to win the Mantle of the God of Magic back when he and Melemizargo were in the running for the same thing. Melemizargo won, while Nothanganathor lost, and in that losing, Melemizargo cursed him to never be able to ascend… For some reason. So that made sense. Nothanganathor was a total asshole who needed to kill Melemizargo, but not really, because the Mantle of the God of Magic could only be given away, and so Nothanganathor had needed to kill the entire Old Cosmology first…

“Oh shit.”

Erick paused there on the crystal skyroad, his eyes going wide as he realized something big.

In order to kill a god, you first needed to kill all that god’s people. But Nothanganathor did not want to kill Melemizargo. He wanted Melemizargo’s mantle. So first, he Sundered the Painted Cosmology.

That’s what people tried to suggest to Erick, way back when he first fell to Veird; that if he ever wanted to ‘solve the problem of the Shades’ he needed to kill Melemizargo, which meant killing all of his believers, first.

Erick frowned. “I find it very fucking unusual that no one here believes Nothanganathor Sundered the Painted Cosmology… But all I have is circumstantial evidence that he did that. To hear people talk about it, Nothanganathor already has defenses against those circumstantial evidences. He was ‘just in the neighborhood’ and ‘invested with the universe already’, so of course he ‘moved to contain the only remaining part of the Painted Cosmology’, to ‘keep that apocalypse from spreading’.” Erick’s voice was filled with hateful sarcasm, both because Erick was rather furious, but also so that the people out there listening to him could know what he was about. “I suppose, if I hadn’t come up from Veird myself, then I might have believed whatever lies Nothanganathor was spinning.”

… No one responded. Well that was fine.

Erick kept walking.

Someone would come out to talk to him soon enough. They were there in the air near Erick. He felt them watching. Or maybe it was just [Scry] spellwork from a long distance away. This was the Celestial Observatory, after all. Even if Erick couldn’t see the [Scry] spellwork, it was out there. Watching.

Soon, people did start to appear, but not beside Erick.

Up ahead stood a massive gatehouse that was dwarfed by the crystal mountain behind it. Behind, at the other side of the large, crystal bridge, stood a similarly massive gatehouse that was much larger than the mountain behind that one. Erick had been walking toward the bigger gatehouse.

The gates at both mountains were closed. The side entrances opened, though, and people moved out from those to stand and present arms, if Erick was reading that right. Maybe-paladins in shining armor stood with maybe-archmages in voluminous white and blue robes. They had floating shields, or floating staves. The whole arrangement of people looked rather polished and practiced, but also done in a large hurry. They didn’t seem angry.

They were getting prepared, though.

It’d be several minutes before Erick got to the gate by the big mountain. He took his time. People were still moving around by the time he got close enough to not need to yell to speak to them.

And then he got a bit closer.

Aside from the scattered archmages and paladins in lines to the side, three main people stood directly in front of the closed gate.

There was an elven woman with long ears, with three pairs of disconnected white wings floating behind her back.

There was a man who was wreathed in black.

And an entity made of blue-white crystal with a bunch of organs hanging out in his crystal body—

“Oh shit! I know you.” Erick stared at the crystal person from 15 meters away. “From a vision of a Grand Wizard Tower of the Painted Cosmology in the Dark. You were walking with some sort of sun god. You look… exactly the same.”

The winged elf, the dark mage, and everyone else were a little surprised by… Well probably a lot. Erick wasn’t sure what surprised them more. Perhaps his expletive?

The cyan crystal seemed to sigh. “Ah. You could have heard that from Shadow, but I don’t believe she knows I’m here, so I guess you’re the real deal.”

“Apologies,” Erick said, “I don’t know your name. I assume this is Moonarcher and Darkcaller?”

“Yes yes. I’m Crystalmaster. Moonarcher and Darkcaller are good friends of mine. They’re not going to help you. None of us are.”

“… Okay. I got a letter from you asking for me to appear, though. So… Why?”

Crystalmaster said, “The Wraithborne Tower has issued a preemptive edict against us assisting you in any way, threatening destructive action if we should entertain your anything. They are demanding you speak with them if you wish to pursue any actions against Nothanganathor. That is why we sent the letter to you.”

Erick had some anger, yes, but it was a distant sort of emotion. “And what if I wanted to free all of Margleknot from slavery of all sorts, and destroy a few different evil institutions along the way? The Wraithborne Tower may or may not be on that list because I heard it’s the biggest one, but I haven’t decided. The Slaver’s Den is for sure on that list.”

Contrary to any sort of eagerness at Erick’s brash declaration of… whatever that was, he wasn’t even sure himself, Erick only saw defeat in the eyes of every single person there.

Good had been defeated.

Erick had already assumed that, anyway, at the start of this whole mess, when he saw Yggdrasil’s Guidebook and knew that there was only one Good place on Margleknot, and several Evil ones. But to actually see that resignation in the eyes of the people here… it was both sad and infuriating.

Erick held his tongue.

Crystalmaster said, “It’s a non-war between us and them. A stalemate. We flourish, and they flourish, and we don’t fight each other directly. Individuals are allowed to fight individuals, but the Celestial Observatory cannot fight the Wraithborne Tower, or any of the splinter lands of Evil. It’s a balance in homage to the Balance. If we moved against it, we would surely perish in mutually assured destruction. And worse than that—” He moved his aura around, saying, “Every single person here except for Moonarcher, Darkcaller, and I, have soul shackles upon them. If we let you into these gates, these people die directly; soul sundered. If we tamper with their shackles, they die; soul sundered. Others are then triggered to die, for every person like this is paired with another person which changes daily. You get the painting. It’s standard Wraithborne Tower anti-war protocols.”

“… Okay.” Erick took a moment, then said, “I’ll be back.” He asked the sky, “Yggdrasil? Portal to the Wraithborne Tower, please.”

A portal opened up behind Erick.

He stepped through.

- - - -

The portal closed behind him.

He stood in a business district.

Tall, sleek buildings. Stone roads. Normal-looking trees growing in cut-out sections of the road. Enchanted parts of the road that were clearly for walking fast upon, as evident by the glowing arrows that colored those lanes of the road, and how people were walking upon them but also zooming—

A spirit floated up from the floor in front of Erick. It was a man dressed as a butler, and partially transparent, except around the eyes and fingers. Those parts of him were a lot more solid. He spoke draconic with a funny accent, “Wraithborne Tower greets the True Wizard of Benevolence, Erick Flatt, planar of Earth and Veird. Welcome, please. We hope whichever message of ours you found was one of the more agreeable ones. I’m the Tower Ghost, a conglomerate entity created to help the people of our land with normal tasks, and to assist all guests who should journey here, to help them achieve whatever cooperative goals that the Tower and our guests might decide to cooperate upon.”

Erick rapidly got over the fact that they knew who he was. ‘Incognito’ simply didn’t matter with some powers. Erick briefly wondered if Lyra truly hadn’t known who he was, or if she had been pretending.

“I got your message at the Celestial Observatory. The one where you threatened to kill soul shackled people should they speak to me without me coming here first.” Erick’s voice had an edge to it that he couldn’t quite erase, even with all of his experience with dealing with untoward elements like evil necromancers. He was fine with that edge. He purposely tried to be more personable, though, as he said, “I understand that things are done here in Margleknot through slavery and other terrible ways, so I cannot fault you for doing what you have to do to survive. I would hope that you would understand that things do not have to continue to be done the same way, though. In that sort of spirit, I would like to discuss the complete, peaceful transition of all of the Wraithborne Tower to a more good-aligned conglomeration of people, if your people are open to such a thing.”

Without missing a beat, or having any sort of reaction at all to Erick’s larger words, the ghost simply said, “My superiors would love to discuss that with you. Would you like an air wagon to pick you up? Or we could walk to Center, and I could show you some of Tower City along the way? This is the main city of Wraithborne Tower, after all. It is quite impressive, if you ask me. We’re home to 3.2 trillion souls here, and over half of them are alive!”

He said the last part like some sort of inside joke.

Erick wasn’t very jolly right now.

The ghost did not seem to mind that his joke fell flat.

Erick said, “Let’s walk, Tower Ghost.” Erick started walking forward. “I would like to know more about this land, from your perspective. What I read about you is that you’re all about different types of slavery, and I do not approve.”

Tower Ghost floated alongside Erick and a subtle path lit up on the ground, like a white carpet glowing just above the stone underneath, stretching out several meters in a straight line. As Erick walked forward the path behind him vanished, while the path further ahead materialized. It was a navigation system, obviously, but the end point of the navigation system wasn’t there yet; only the next several meters.

With his senses looking out from all of his body, and not just his eyes, Erick spotted other people using the same sort of navigation system on a street one over from this one, and far, far behind Erick, following this same road that Erick walked.

Tower Ghost said, “I would start from the beginning, if you do not mind. We have a bit of a walk ahead of us, but the fast path will get us there in a decent amount of time.”

Erick nodded.

Tower Ghost continued, “Wraithborne Tower started off as a truly Evil organization, in the classical sense. Elemental Evil was at its core, and we still have that core to this day, in the center of the tower. That is where we have our armies and our defenses and our most malevolent magics. Those malevolent magics include some Malevolent gifts from Nothanganathor, given to us when he was in this land, before he set forth on his plots to erase the Painted Cosmology from existence. His trinkets are the least of our powers, but they are still capable of great, propagating destruction.”

Erick got the sudden, very distinct feeling that he would have to cooperate with these assholes, if only because they surely knew everything that Erick needed to prove in court. He said, “So you believe that he succeeded in destroying the Painted Cosmology.”

“Oh yes. He succeeded. He came in here, looking for help. He received help in exchange for services rendered, primarily with propagation-type magic. And then he went out and killed a universe. Technically, that’s all circumstantial. The Fae Enclave does not accept circumstantial evidence and neither do we. But we understand that circumstantial evidence does exist, and may hide true evidence one way or the other.”

… Yeah.

Erick moved on, “You were saying about the start of the Tower?”

“The tower retains its Evil nature because Good is… Well. We have a saying here. Evil wins because Good is stupid. Or weak. Or soft. There are a thousand variations of this saying, and all of them are true in certain ways. But this is not a true statement at all. We learned this the hard way over many setbacks and full-scale destructions. Once you get too Evil, Good arises to smite you down, so in this way, unchecked Evil, while great for the individual, is not something you can build societies upon. Evil is just as idiotic as good.

“And yet, Evil will always exist, because to be Evil is to be selfish and smart.

“And so: we learned that a proper evil is one that does not seem evil, but one which wears its label with pride and shows how prosperous it can truly be when it is allowed to be prosperous. Those are the evils which stick around. And yet, small evils lead to Big Evils, if evil is allowed to exist without checks.

“And so, to make a long history short, we retain our Evil nature, but we have grown softer in the spread of our power, and ruthlessly crush greater Evils in order to keep our power spreading and growing.

“We don’t kill anyone that we can turn.

“We speak with words instead of actions here on layer 0. Layer 1 is fair game for war and ultimate ends of all kinds, but even there our representatives represent hope for a great many people.

“We rescue people from true death all the time, and only ask that they give back the resources that were used to resurrect them, with interest of course. If they don’t pay their tab then we keep them soul shackled until they do, making many people technically slaves, but not really. If there were a better way to ensure that people don’t just run off into infinity when their bill comes due, then we would love to hear it.

“And we help everyone who comes to our land, as long as they help us, first.

“As for this Nothanganathor issue: we would be your lawyers in this fight if you can pay us more for your prosecution against him than he can pay us for his defense against whatever case you might bring against him. If you do hire us, then everything that he has done under our powers will be revealed to the courts, as his actions would no longer be protected by the Seal of the Tower, because someone else bought him out; namely you.

“Because we are an evil organization, True Wizard Flatt, trying very hard not to be True Evil.

“We support ourselves, and if one of our contractors runs enough afoul of the good powers out there then we give them up for the greater Balance of us all. Nothanganathor seems like he has finally tripped that line.” Tower Ghost added, “We warned him he might fall this way, and it seems he finally has. His Malevolence is a form of mana that is inherently tuned to subterfuge and twisting outcomes to bad ends that favor him. Your counter, Benevolence, is inherently tuned to be powerful, first, and then helping others with the power that you gain yourself. Quite honestly, the Tower believes you are poised to spread far and wide. Nothanganathor has yet to seize the power he has so long wished for, and is likely at a dead end.

“With that sort of understanding, us remaining with Nothanganathor is a losing bet.” The Tower Ghost finished with, “And yet! The Tower always cleaves with those who would deal with us, versus those who would tear us down.”

As the Tower Ghost spoke, Erick followed the path.

He ended up at a wide road that was more ‘entryway to a big business’ than a road. Stone sculptures of men and women and otherwise lined the road, all of them wearing something different, from robes to armor to furs to skins. Little plaques underneath them told how they were to be woken up in case of emergency assault against the tower, and what they would do if woken. There was a guy who would animate the bones inside the bodies of all non-tower residents, causing them to kill their friends and make those people watch from their own eyes as their own hands killed their friends. There was a woman who simply turned people into blood amalgamations, also with the characteristic ‘you get to experience this as you do horrible things’. Another one would simply cause people to turn into voids that would then turn other assailants into voids.

Erick fully believed those plaques, because each stone statue held fascinatingly strong souls within. Each one shone like a beacon in the dark. Even to common eyes, the stone appeared asleep instead of simple stone.

Erick sighed a little, as Tower Ghost’s words ended right as they entered the Stone Parade, as a plaque in the middle named the entryway road. He said, “An impressive collection of evils, Tower Ghost.”

“One cannot be a power without being powerful, so yes, we try to collect everything that could give us an edge in any confrontation.” Tower Ghost said, “As for our Great Evils... We would prefer it if the big threats could remain behind an air of mystery for now, though some threats do need to be openly stated for them to be understood. In that spirit, I must clearly say this: We would go to war against you and Veird, if you cross us. We would drown you in unending misery.”

The air was cold. It smelled like stone.

Erick easily said, “I’m not looking to make permanent enemies right now, nor will I be looking to make permanent enemies in the future. I accept your offer of your complete separation from Nothanganathor and one of your lawyers to assist me against him in an Enclave court, but only if you would consider a complete eventual dismantling of the Evil core of this Tower, and the replacement of a different powerful source at your center, like perhaps Benevolence.” Erick said, “I’m sure you're able to resurrect people right now, but I can do that, too, and make them effectively immortal through Reincarnation, resetting their age and species to whatever I desire. You asked for how to make debts last forever without soul shackles? Then how about simple Reincarnation into less-good forms, without soul control at all. If someone wants their original body back, then you can reincarnate them into that sort of body.” He finished with, “Unless, of course, you already have that knowledge.”

Erick’s Lightning Path was telling him that they didn’t have that knowledge at all, or at least that Erick’s offer was tantalizing in some way.

It was the same problem as the Necromancers on Veird experienced. Surely these people had more resources than simple Elemental Death, but every single one of those Veird Necromancers, including Quilatalap, had been very impressed with how well Benevolence took to soul work, and Benevolence made a lot of established spellwork simply irrelevant.

Tower Ghost betrayed none of the thoughts that Erick knew he was thinking, as he said, “Your counter proposal is taken, and will be deliberated upon. Would you like to speak to someone in charge, instead of the Tower itself?”

Erick looked around and asked, “I see lots of individual towers, but I’m not sure where you are, exactly? I expected to see the base of the Tower when I came through. Not a cityscape.”

“You’re located in city 1-87; one of the many business areas of this land, which many would consider the main one. This is a space about a thousand kilometers wide and with an atmosphere several tens of kilometers tall. Each one of our lands is set next to each other, and then more rings of our main lands extend below this one, forming a multi-layered ring-like system that spins around the base of the tower, up there by the Evil Death Sun.”

The white sun flickered and, like an illusion fading, grey seeped into the world. Color and brightness faded from everyone and everything. The populace all around Erick almost panicked, but then the sky came right back, the grey sun turning white, the sky around it turning blue once again. There were fluffy clouds. Color returned.

Some people on the streets moved faster, opting not to linger around anywhere at all.

Tower Ghost said, “This is the business district upon the first floor. The second floor, below us, is residential. One floor below that is for monsters. All of the true monsters are in our bases around our Evil Death Sun. The actual Wraithborne Tower is more of a private residence now. We can go visit that, if you like, but I would strongly suggest against such an unannounced visit. The Death Emperor does not appreciate uninvited guests.”

“Morbion Blackthorn is the current Death Emperor, yes?”

Tower Ghost said, “As the current Death Emperor, Morbion Blackthorn is the undisputed ruler of the Wraithborne Tower, sitting upon his throne of bones and souls at the Apex of the Tower. We, his lowly servants, pray that we are enough to deal with all of your needs, and that we shall never draw his ire.”

“Sure sure.” Erick asked, “So which evils around Margleknot do you feel should be destroyed?”

“… Uh.”

“Yeah yeah. That’s probably too forward of a relationship right now.” Erick said, “But the Slaver’s Den is much smaller than you guys, right? Only a continent of people? Most of them slaves? How much to buy some propagation spellwork from you guys? I’m thinking of eliminating slavery as a concept. Elemental Vile and Contract? How about Elemental Nope! Eh. I’m playing with you. But not really.”

Tower Ghost looked at Erick, and then softly said, “I. Uh. Must inform you that the Wraithborne Tower has contracts with the Slaver’s Den, the Slaver’s Union, the Slaver’s Pit, and the Slaver’s Ransom.”

“Lotta those places, I think. Too many, by far.” Erick said, “You’re going to have to cut down on most of those evil sorts of contracts if you want to tie your fate to the new universe order.”

“… I feel this conversation has gotten away from me in a way I did not foresee. Could I please take your words to others to make decisions? And get back to you at a later date?”

“Of course, of course.” Erick said, “I hope for good news! I’ve been checking myself and our surroundings all this time, and haven’t noticed anything too untoward. At the beginning you tried to subtly press a Contract-ish ‘walk and talk with me’ magic, but then you noticed it wouldn’t work, and you stopped. I suppose it’s in your nature to attempt to soul shackle everyone though.” Erick added, “You gotta try, right? How many people here have shackles on them? All of them? All 3.2 trillion people? Or just the living ones? I bet all of them, actually.”

Erick’s true hatred probably came out too much.

Wide-eyed and not able to contain his worry anymore, Tower Ghost vanished—

With a flick of his hand, Erick ripped dragon-sized claws of softly-glowing Benevolence through the air, grabbing Tower Ghost back into this space. Erick held the ghost for a moment, setting him down on the ground, and then he let him go. Tower Ghost rapidly abandoned his horror at being brought back so easily. He simply stood, looking like a proper butler waiting for his execution with aplomb.

Erick ignored the statues of Stone Parade turning to face him.

Erick said, “Just because someone tries shit, doesn’t mean that I automatically resort to violence. I don’t like being run away from, though. And now, to make sure I am perfectly clear: I have forgiven lots of people for lots of wrongs, and am very much about second chances, even for the worst evils in any universe. I have certain lines that result in the extermination of my enemies, though. Nothanganathor has crossed all of those. He will not be forgiven. Please do not test my lines yourself, and please accept the Benevolence that has been offered to you in the manner in which it has been gifted, because everything can be made better, even evil.

“And now, I hope I have delivered my own message.” Erick said, “I look forward to having productive conversations with someone in charge, at some later date—”

One of the statues came to life and threw a beam of some sort of Void power at Erick. The spellwork was black at the center and wide as three people, and ringed with Golden, reson-empowered Death.

Erick stood there and took it.

He split some of his attention to watch his Status, to see tens of thousands of Mana, Health, and Psyche flake away from his body. It wasn’t a large drain. The Golden Death Void also obliterated the ground and everything beyond Erick, though, carving a hole through the floor and then to the next floor and the next. Erick was in no danger. He wasn’t even activating Mana Siphon yet.

So that’s what he did.

The spell beam broke upon Erick’s glowing white sunform, soaking into his body, attempting to claw its way through his Mana Siphon and into his very core. It didn’t even get past his surface protections. The Gold Death Void was like ink trying to flow up a river of lightning.

Erick consumed that spellwork through Renew turning mana into more power, and even his [Reson Wallet] started to flicker upward, increasing that particular number of his Status by several points per second, as he absorbed the resons inside the Golden Death Void.

Erick made a show of ignoring the Golden Death Void. He turned and gazed down the hole that the black beam had created. “That goes down pretty far. I hope you’re not open to space down there? Seems you might be, though. Well I certainly didn’t kill your own people. That’s on you.”

The Golden Death Void mage continued to thrum power at Erick, snarling and roaring, his stone flesh turning to real flesh with every passing moment, his black beam turning thicker and denser with emptiness. Void was usually a very difficult attack to do anything against. That’s why Quilatalap used Void in his most dangerous spells. This particular magic didn’t appear that difficult for Erick right now. The guy was either furious that Erick was able to stand inside the beam —and sure, that was happening— but it seemed like he might just be insane. A sacrificial pawn, then? All he was doing was spilling out power, unable to do anything else.

Welp!

No one better to test this next magic against than him.

Erick flashed, lightning stepping to the stone statue’s side, surrounding him with his sunform and shutting down his spellwork.

And then he hit the Golden Death Void mage with a reson-empowered [Reincarnation]—

- - - -

Erick stood on a field of desiccated bodies. The sky was red with two dark suns. The air was dry enough to kill, and the mountainous horizon crumbled in that dryness.

A man stood four meters away. He looked like the man who had been a statue, who had become a snarling madman, who was now transitioning to someone else.

Erick asked, “I assume you’re Derock Caver, from the statue. That was the name on the plaque below your stone prison.”

The man stared at the sky. He looked at his hands. “… I think I was Derock for a long time, long ago, before the Contracts and the ensorcellments, and the duty.” The man flexed his hands and dried blood flaked away. “I haven’t been Derock in a long time. I don’t want to be him anymore. I feel… free of the constant hate.”

“Got any requests?”

“… A loving family and hardly any death— Water. Nice, clean, deep water. Big enough to swim in.” Derock smiled. “I want to teach my sons and daughters how to swim.”

“And so you shall.”

Lightning flashed out of the red sky and struck Derock.

The man who had been Derock was gone.

- - - -

Erick came back to himself.

Lightning finished striking a pedestal that held a man who had become a weapon, and who was not that anymore. Mosses and flowers grew from the pedestal.

Erick flashed with Benevolence, crafting himself some fake clothes for now. And then he turned back to the conglomerate mass of souls that was the Wraithborne Tower. The ghost stared hard, accepting whatever was going to happen to him.

But nothing was going to happen right now.

Erick said. “I’m not sure where Derock is anymore. He’s certainly not under your control. I assume this was enough proof of power for your needs?”

Tower Ghost said, “It was more than sufficient.”

Erick nodded. “Yggdrasil. Portal somewhere else, please.” A swirling portal opened up on to black crystal streets, and Erick said to Tower Ghost, “I look forward to a peaceful changeover of power, or at least something indicative of smaller, productive changes, for now.”

And then he walked away.

- - - -

Morbion Blackthorn, Emperor of The Wraithborne Tower, stood behind a window in the public offices of the Tower Itself, at the top of the building at the end of the Stone Parade. He watched as the Wizard of Benevolence walked through a Margleknot portal. The portal closed behind him.

Morbion had… concerns.

A few of his primes, sitting behind him at the war table, also had concerns. From the Skeleton Prime, to the Soul Prime, to the Officer of Paper and the Prime of Future Projects, not a single person in the room looked sure of themselves. Every one of them had been secure in their place in the Tower and in Margleknot last year. Morbion had been guiding the Tower towards true prosperity, anchoring the Evil side of the Balance, suborning all others who dared to encroach upon his people or his power.

For the last 7,500 years, the Wraithborne Tower had been gaining strength and influence through accepting that they could not have everything, though Morbion still wanted everything. Every world, every nexus, every Power, all under his black fist, or at least allowing him to put a pinky on any scale he wished to weigh upon. It was the softer way, and it was working well. Even the Celestial Observatory, their largest foe, had fallen to them, to their softer powers. Or at least they pretended. That was enough for now.

And then here comes the new Father of Margleknot, a man who could erase the shackles upon their strongest tools and rip those tools from the Tower in a miracle instant.

Tower Ghost appeared out of the floor, already kneeling. He waited for acknowledgment.

Morbion said, “Speak your assessment, Tower.”

“Apologies, Emperor. He saw through everything.”

“Well of course he did.” Morbion asked, “Have we tracked down wherever Derock went?”

Tower Ghost said, “No. The man who had been Derock vanished through a slip of Benevolence, entering into the Margleknot tangle, whereupon he vanished from all tracking. That’s as far as our systems have been able to detect. The shackles upon his soul were completely removed. Even the reson-empowered ones that should have remained through everything. The Witches At The Board are attempting to prognosticate Derock’s destination but they have already expressed doubts that such a thing is possible. They will, of course, continue to attempt to divine his fall, should you desire it.”

Morbion sighed at that. “It takes a special sort of person to make a Reincarnation that good. None of us have managed it, and the Good-aligned places don’t touch soul magic that well at all. It appears Ascended Flatt’s Truth is the real deal, and that he is open to true cooperation.”

Tower Ghost said nothing.

Morbion turned to his people and declared, “Ignore the Reincarnation fall. Set Pernicious and the Witches on discovering the viability of realigning the Tower with Benevolence; what needs to go, what can we keep, what can we gain. Draw up tentative plans for conquering all of Margleknot through Benevolence; I want a full battleplan. Set the Magic Finders on the Reincarnation we witnessed; I want to understand why his Reincarnation was able to do what it did. Was it simple reson magic? Or was it something more explainable? Get the Culture Bureau on propaganda proposals for adjusting our culture to Benevolence, while the Mindfulness Bureau determines how our people would react to this change-of-base, and who we would need to eliminate or adjust to make it smooth. Ask the Old Liches if they would support this action. Erick would probably give them Reincarnations if we asked him for that as a part of any sort of agreement. Kakalakot and Odarimisu would be willing for a Reincarnation, unless things changed for them. Ask their opinions.”

Tower Ghost vanished.

The Primes and Officers began debating everything.

Morbion sat down at the head of the table as he thought over Erick’s words and listened to his people debate a ‘new universal order’. Gradually, inexorably, the conversation turned confused and solid and angry.

And then Witch Agatha gave word to what everyone was thinking. “Emperor Morbion. I am able to shift paths as much as any witch, but the fact is that we are built upon Evil and we cannot adjust certain inalienable facts of our nation, like the Susurrus of Souls, the Grand Bindings, and the Call of Death. Breaking any of those would open us up to complete anarchy. Our entire empire would come crashing down on every front where we hold power through shackles, or softer powers.”

Morbion said, “I agree. And I also doubt that Ascended Flatt would be willing to give us his Reincarnation magic and then spread that power in corruptive ways for our own gain. I still want the battle plans drawn up in case this thing should somehow turn out viable.” He said, “It is quite possible that we could be both Evil and Benevolent at the same time, and in doing so, find a form of Benevolence that solidifies everything we’ve already done while allowing us to ally with Ascended Flatt in a solid, undeniable sort of way. That is something that I might consider replacing as our core. The Fire World and the Ice Tundra do very well as Balanced powers. We could, theoretically, be Balanced, and step out of this Balance War.”

The gathering turned less confused at that.

Witch Agatha thoughtfully said, “I will get the Witches working on Evil Benevolence… though I must say right now that I doubt such a thing is possible under normal circumstances. We would have to implement Fate magic upon worlds and hope that such a being would naturally arise… And yet, if such a thing were to happen, then the same thing might happen to us that is going to happen to Nothanganathor.”

“Ah!” Morbion pretended to remember that issue. “Yes.” He lifted his chin. “Someone send some lawyer to Erick for that matter. Help him clear away Nothanganathor to his satisfaction. Perhaps Blighter? Unless he’s busy.”

Lawyer Prime, Hadrago, said, “Blighter is currently trying a case in the Enclave. He’s drawing it out for a better conclusion. He would want to be on this case, though, and could easily end that case in our client’s favor at any moment. If he decides not then I can send his understudy. I would want Blighter and his understudy to be involved in this case, if Flatt would agree to such a thing, but he did say ‘one person’. I felt he meant that.”

“Push that line; send both Blighter and the other person,” Morbion commanded.

Hadrago bowed in his seat, and then he started typing away at his tablet.

As his people spoke, Morbion imagined a few different ways to assassinate Erick… That would probably not work out too well. They couldn’t simply kill him, first of all. That would break the Balance too much and cause a universal backlash against the Wraithborne Tower. Such a backlash would instantly go to Total War and likely end in the decoupling of the Tower from Margleknot…

Decoupling from Margleknot wouldn’t be that bad of an outcome, at first, except that it would open them up to being Outside the Balance, on Layer 1, and thus free game for anyone who wished to go to war for any reason at all. Such an outcome would completely ruin Morbion’s goal of total control of Margleknot and thus the universe, so that would be reason enough to avoid that outcome.

Morbion listened to his people debate and talk, while he made plans for the future of them all.

Some of them brought up rather good points and Morbion added those points to his own thoughts.

- - - -

Erick had spent a moment in the Black Crystal District, but then he moved on. He stepped through a portal onto the grasses outside of his house—

Resons started to generate from his skin, crystallizing like sweat, and then crusting outward like amber diamonds. He discarded his clothes and then used his aura to control where the resons fell from him. Instead of piling against his skin, resons sloughed off the air around him in continuous sheets of sparkling gold crystal. He checked his Status.

Erick Flatt, [60-ish] [Current Year: 1453 (Veird, layer 789), ??? (Margleknot)] [CURRENT REALITY=Layer 0, Margleknot]

Mana split; Soul, Body, Mind: 31%, 30%, 30%

Reson allocation rate: 9%

Soul: 47.3m per day / 547.45 per second , [Darkness Level = 3.19x Ascension baseline]

Body: 212

Mind: 317

Overall Stability: ↑↑ [+498, -3] Basic upkeep

Mp: 5.5m/∞, ↑ [+167, -1] Basic upkeep

Hp: 5.5m/∞, ↑ [+164, -1] Basic upkeep

Pp: 5.5m/∞, ↑ [+164, -1] Basic upkeep

Resons: 37,017 [+49.23 = +5.47]

Erick watched resons fall in sheets out of the air, as he said, “So my Darkness went up… a lot. Thus the reson expulsion... and it appears my Stats are going up, too.”

… Maybe they would stabilize at a new, higher level?

Erick watched gold fall from the air around him for a while, just to see what would happen.

He had a lot to think about regarding that confrontation back there.

Erick decided he would forgive the assassination attempt. Any real attacks against him were unforgivable, but a simple ‘see if he can back up his claims of power’ sort of attack? Sure. Reasonable, even. He had probably put too much pressure on them, so of course they were going to test him…

Honestly, he should lower his scope.

He wasn’t going to change the universe. He wanted to save Veird. Margleknot and all of this stuff? This could be a long term goal. The more important goal would be saving Veird.

And besides that, if Erick pushed too hard with any of the forces around here they would push back hard. If the Wraithborne Tower actually decided to try and kill him it wouldn’t be with some half-crazed stone-locked killer…

Erick laid back on the grass

Erick looked to the sun-filled sky and wondered at Derock’s new life.

“Hopefully it’s somewhere nice, with lots of water.”

… Erick went for a swim in his own lake. It was delightfully refreshing.