Under a brilliant blue sky, Erick gazed down upon the City Restored.

Erick could kinda see the resemblance to the [Witness] memory that he had seen back on floor one. The place looked a lot nicer without all the flooding.

There was a playhouse over there, while in the other direction lay Ramblewood Arcanaeum and University. In the distance sat the massive castle of the king or whoever, while the noble houses grew on hills over there like mushrooms separate from the rest of the city. Between all of that lay a whole lot of rather normal-looking cityscapes. To the right, maybe two streets away, sat the guard tower and guardhouse where Erick had first [Witness]ed Ashes’s life…

Ashes’s memories still lurked in Erick’s mind, and from those memories Erick saw tens of touchpoints here and there across the land, and his heart thumped with some unknown feeling; a nostalgia for something that he had never known.

He also saw where the city was different from the memory—

Kinder said, “I’d love for you to have as many moments like this as you need, but that’s been about 3 minutes of city-gazing so far, and it looks to be a lot more. Shall we move on, and then you come back to this later? I wish to ensure you are acquainted with the city before I move on.”

Erick blinked a little as he broke away from his sightseeing. “… Right. Right.” His heart thumped. And then he looked to the tower that they had come out of. It was a white spire with no interior, and with a staircase spiraling down around the outside; a 200 meter length of stone extending up from the city below and not much more. There was a divot in the stone top of the tower where Erick and Kinder had walked through, roughly in the size and shape of a portal, but there was no portal there anymore. Erick looked to the side, where that staircase started. “Not even an elevator?”

Kinder grinned. “I am sure you are used to flying, but we do things simple here.” He started down the stairs, saying, “It’s a nice walk to the check-in zone, but it is a walk.”

Erick followed at Kinder’s side. The staircase was 3 meters wide, and easily allowed for Erick to walk beside the dungeon master. “Is that building below us not a check-in area?”

“Nope. That’s just a guardhouse, though we don’t have much use for those in Utopia. No real crime, you understand. Every delver who makes it this deep has to go through certain trials to make it down here, to prove their character, and those who already live here aren’t prone to that sort of thing. But if you desire it...” Kinder asked, “Do you wish to be a guard?”

“Ah? No. I’m… Not looking to move down here.”

Kinder nodded. “Not everyone does. Emergency exits are always available, but most people come and go from the towers. Before you leave, let us get you through some paperwork, and get you your house and storage. And then you can leave. To come back to this floor all you have to do is enter the dungeon up top, and come inside like you normally do. When you get to the portals in the hills, you’ll automatically come down to this floor, and then you can continue on, whatever you want.”

“I won’t be shunted to the second floor? Or the third floor?”

“Not anymore.” Kinder said, “Now if you come in with someone else, you’ll have to escort them through the other floors before you’re allowed to return here with them. We try not to let any of the general public circumvent the floors… For various reasons.”

“To make sure they align politically with Utopia?”

Kinder rolled his eyes. “Random shits from Greensoil always bring their problems in with them, and we dislike that. If you want to say that it’s ‘political’ to desire a nice homeland, then sure. It’s political.”

Erick smirked. They had yet to get more than halfway to the floor below. “How did you even get orcols and incani and dragonkin here? Did they come in from Greensoil? From Greendale? That can’t have been easy for them.”

“Ahhh… Well that’s something of an open secret, but… I suppose you’ll find out soon enough.” Kinder said, “It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes when a delver from another dungeon needs an emergency exit, and they give a prayer to Atunir, they sometimes end up here. Every individual’s story is different. Some turn corners in a dead city and end up stepping out onto the streets of Utopia. Sometimes they come in from the fields. What’s actually problematic with them is that they want to leave and they want to bring others here, and that’s often troublesome, since we only have the one exit up top, by Greendale. We still help them leave and sometimes we even help them get back, of course, but it’s… That’s hard to do with Greendale watching.”

Erick put 1 and 1 and then a bunch of other numbers together, and offered, “I can ask Erick if you want access to the Gate Network for the transportation of delvers to and from the Glittering Depths.”

Kinder flinched hard. He rapidly tried to recollect himself, and he was mostly successful. “Uh… Perhaps… We don’t want to…” His voice trailed off.

Erick gave him several seconds to collect his thoughts, but when he had no more thoughts to give, Erick offered him an out, “You don’t want to involve the Wizard, but you do want to ask for help, and you’re not sure how.”

Kinder lied, “Correct.”

“… So I was wrong, and that was a lie, but that’s too deep for me to understand right now. I won’t involve him with this at all, and you can wait and tell me what sort of help you want from a Benevolence dragon, when you’re ready.”

“… Sure.”

Kinder fell silent, and Erick respected that silence, as the two of them continued down the staircase.

They stepped off of the tower, directly onto a road made of white crystal. A guardhouse stood beside the tower, where three different guards, all human, had been preparing for Kinder and Erick’s arrival by stepping lively to the road, with their hands on the hilts of their rods, and their faces set sternly. They looked ready to throw down, or to turtle up if the situation required, which seemed like an odd response from guards from a place called ‘Utopia’. All of them gave Erick’s own rod a glance. Except for the knotwork metal inscriptions, Erick’s rod looked exactly the same as their own, and they didn’t like that.

But Kinder waved them off, and all of the guards relaxed. And they truly did relax, with the lead man smiling a little as he backed away, and one woman resuming her talk with the other woman about some party that was going to be happening later tonight. The guards easily returned to their non-duties, as Erick and Kinder walked down the white crystal road.

Erick was about to ask what they were scared about—

Kinder said, “The tower we came down is the tower to the second floor, and no one normally comes down that way, except for in emergencies, which usually involve one floor invading another. That’s why it’s a walk to the check-in zone; there is no proper check-in site here.”

“… That wasn’t quite going to be my question, but that does answer some questions about the nature of the towers around here…” Floors could invade other floors? He knew that such a thing was possible, but he didn’t think such a thing could happen in a Grand Dungeon. That seemed… Not ideal. Erick moved on. “There’s more than 5, though?” Erick counted the skyline, and recalled what he had seen as they spiraled the tower to floor 2, on their way down here to the city. “There’s like 9 of them? But there’s only 5 floors and the endless delve, right?”

“We’ve got five towers for the five floors, three for various other places, and one for the entrance floor. Only three towers see constant use; the administrative tower near the castle, the floor 5 exit/entrance, and the tower that leads to the endless delve. You’ll be coming and going from the fifth floor tower next time.”

Erick nodded, then asked, “Why did those guards look at my rod like that? Like they hated it.”

“You are following the guard questline, so there is some professional judgment there. If you wish to move here and become a guard you’re welcome to it. Aside from that, both your staff and rod are rather damned bright to anyone with a proper mana sense, and the guards have great mana senses.” Kinder said, “The development of a mana sense is necessary to truly make it past floor 3 and beyond, and most of the guards here have voluntarily chosen to go through the dungeon.”

Erick was a bit surprised by that. “The residents go through the dungeon, too?”

“Yes. Most opt to go through a special course to teach them how to use magic on Veird, though; not through the 5 levels you went through, to learn how to use Atunir’s Second Script.”

“… I think I would like to see your Veird-acclimation course. How does such a thing even work here, since you have a Second Script?”

“A lot of things taught here translate well to Veird; aura control, mana altering in various ways, mana sense. As soon as you understand those three, you can do almost anything.”

This part of Utopia was a rather nice sort of town. Not rich. Not poor; Erick doubted that any part of Utopia was ‘poor’ at all. Just… Nice. Trees to the sides of the road. People walking this way and that. Mothers guiding children to wherever. Men drinking at a local bar. Houses with closets filled with clothes and pantries stocked to bursting. Extra rooms. People cooked in their own homes on nice stoves, or worked on hobbies or crafts or other work. A lot of little shops were here and there, with people selling stuff, or gathering into friend groups for whatever sorts of activities... Big bedrooms.

… Lotta pregnant women and kids.

… Lotta people fucking in the buildings all around.

Great pastime; that.

Atunir was the Goddess of Field and Fertility, after all. Made sense that there were a lot of children and pregnant women.

Nice to see schools for the children, too. There was a kindergarten over there that was packed with kids. Looked like a class at the nearby schoolhouse was teaching a class of 20 teenagers about Veird and the Script, too. The people here had plans to move on to the real world, it seemed...

Erick asked, “How often do the people here move onto Veird?”

“Quite often. The whole story of the Sundering is absolutely terrifying, and to find out we’re all remnants of a dead cosmology spurs quite a few people into trying to find out what is real.” Kinder said, “Most people come back to Utopia, though. Veird is a land of terror.”

Erick barked a laugh at that.

Kinder frowned a little.

Erick chided the man. “Oh come on! Veird is a thousand times better than it used to be!”

Kinder’s face relaxed, and then he nodded a little. “From what I have heard, it makes sense that you would say that.” He looked to Erick, adding, “But your world is still terrifying, Ashes.”

“… It’s a lot better than it used to be. Almost all the unnatural death is contained to the dungeons and all real disasters are reverted by the Wizard, or solved as best he can.”

Kinder didn’t seem to want to talk about that too much because he changed subjects, saying, “We use the gold standard here, and the markets are like any normal market you would find anywhere on Veird. We have no taxes, because dungeon magic does a lot. Delver housing is free, and so is healthcare and practically every essential you can think of, except food. You gotta pay for food. Services of all kinds are a normal expense, from eating at a restaurant to sending letters to the world outside, but schools are free, and also mandatory for all children…”

Kinder rambled off a bunch of normal information, all of which was rather progressive, in Erick’s opinion, as the two of them walked down the white crystal road. Occasionally, someone would greet Kinder and Kinder would nod back, and speak a bit in passing about normal things, like the estimated timeframe for new classrooms, or when was this or that happening. Erick got the distinct impression that Kinder was like a mayor, which was probably close to the truth. Erick also got the impression that Kinder was exactly used to giving tours, like he was doing for Erick, for he tended to go back and forth between topics, depending on the sights around them as they walked the streets.

Maybe he had done this before, though. Not too often, for Erick heard him repeating a few things. Maybe he didn’t expect Erick to fully understand him? Highly likely.

Eventually they reached a gold street, which seemed to be made of some metal other than gold? Erick wasn’t sure about that. It was certainly harder than gold, for when Erick tapped the road with his staff the road did not deform.

Kinder gestured ahead. “And this is the main road through Utopia. Up ahead is the delver’s courtyard, or square, depending on who you’re talking to. There’s a bunch of various shops of all types in that place, and looking up, you can see the fifth floor tower, if you couldn’t already tell by all the people headed up and down at the moment. Most entering and exiting by delvers is done through there, unless you have an emergency, in which case a portal to the surface can be provided by the dungeon.” Kinder rambled off, “Abuse of the emergency exit function does lead to denial of this function, but as long as you don’t use it more than once a week you’ll be fine.”

Erick glanced upward, and yes, he saw the people stepping up and down the spiraling staircase of the tower. At the top of the tower lay a black portal, open to elsewhere at the dungeon. At the bottom lay a fully-open town square, and though Erick couldn’t see much of that town square from this location, he did see a few guard towers poking up from the sides of that space.

He also saw his first other delver; a woman in a cloak of silver chain with a black metamond clasp holding the cloak together. Silver weaponry and accessories held at her sides and on her hands. Those silver items marked her as a delver of some sort—

The woman gave Erick and Kinder a quick glance, recognized Kinder, and then decided she didn’t care about either of them in almost the same motion. She kept walking. Erick only really noticed her because, without using his eyes, she would have gone completely unnoticed.

There was no mana sensing the woman, or her immediate surroundings.

Now that Erick was drawing closer to the large open space ahead, he realized he couldn’t sense a lot of the people walking around, though he could still see them. Almost everyone here had some sort of anti-sensory magic, like Erick’s own.

Kinder led the way forward, into a vast open space with the tower rising in the center, a golden floor all around, and shops of all kinds lining the town square. It reminded Erick of the adventurer’s district of Spur, or any other major city; crowded, with races of all peoples, and with everyone wearing a bunch of mismatching gear. For a moment, Erick felt self-conscious with his staff in one hand and all the rest of him looking like one of the normal guards of Utopia.

The noise of hundreds of small conversations filled the air, spilling out of taverns or out from groups laughing as they made their way to the tower, or angry shouts from groups coming away from the tower, obviously angry about what had happened in their delve. A lot of people coming down from the tower carried big bags with them. Some of those large bags were protected from mana sense by an extension of the carrier’s anti-sensory field, but some of those bags were exposed to the world and so Erick saw metamonds and spell tomes and various items made of metiron.

Some shops to the sides of the city square had big signs in front of them, showing off that they were vendors and buyers for metiron, metamonds, and everything else that people could find in the dungeons.

A casual glance at their pricing structure, and at the pricing structure of all the other shops, from taverns to general stores, let Erick know that the economy in here was roughly comparable to the economy out on Veird. Sure, some things were grossly different in pricing structure, with Bolt wands being dirt cheap and Health metamonds being worth 1,500 gold for each metamond, but such was to be expected when the way magic worked was different…

… Erick realized he had no money at all right now.

Well that shouldn’t be too hard to fix. All Erick needed to do was sell some Wands of [Rejuvenation]. Those looked like they were going for...

“What the fuck,” Erick whispered, as he slowed down to make sure that what he was seeing was what he was seeing.

Kinder paused his talk and raised an eyebrow at Erick. “Problem?”

“Are Wands of [Rejuvenation] really 250,000 gold? That’s as much as a Rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] out on Veird!”

Kinder chuckled. “Ah? They actually have one on sale over there?” He looked toward the shop Erick was mana sensing. “I’m surprised it’s not gone already.”

… Erick looked closer. “Oh. Well. I guess I assumed that the ‘ask to purchase one’ and the statue meant they actually had one.”

Kinder nodded. “They probably don’t; you have to get on a waiting list.” Kinder added, “Flood the market with those if you desire; it’ll make the delvers able to push further and further into the depths, and anyone working on a floor beyond 80 is pulling in 20k gold per day, unless they suffer catastrophic loss of items, which does happen sometimes. Money is not usually the problem when it comes to getting certain items.” He added, “I would ask you not to proliferate your bolter if you could, but if other people see you using it and try to make their own, then that will probably be good for overall learning.”

The weaker version of this staff would be easy enough for Erick to replicate, but whatever caused his Staff of Absolution to turn into a Staff of Divine Absolution was not easily repeatable. Erick didn’t really want to proliferate weaponry, anyway, so even before the impossibility of Kinder’s ask, Erick was already onboard with the general sentiment.

Kinder led Erick toward the delver center, and more and more people actually started looking Erick’s way, giving him more than a passing once-over. Eyes lingered on Erick’s cerulean-gemmed bracelet, and were drawn to the massive metamond glowing white and iridescent near the top of his staff.

The delver center was a rather normal guildhouse-like place, with tables everywhere for people to drink beer and eat and play card games, while massive leaderboards hung to the side of the room, and bank-teller-like stations serviced lines of delvers. It was a busy location, made all the more busy by heated discussions between people at this or that table, but primarily by a party happening in one large section of the bar, celebrating the downfall of the ‘Ice Queen’ and to the rise of ‘whoever the fuck Ashes is!’—

And then some guys saw Kinder and cheered louder. Kinder nodded, and his step changed as a surety overtook him.

Ah.

Erick saw where this was going.

He decided to let whatever happened, happen. He did not, however, expect for Kinder to kick things off exactly as he did.

Kinder stepped right into the center of the room and smiled wide as he clapped his hands, filling the entire hall with a magically-empowered thundercrack, and then with silence. All eyes turned their way, and Kinder put a hand on Erick’s shoulder, allowing sound to return to the guildhall as he announced, “Greetings, everyone! This is Ashes Woodfield, fresh off the second floor, because he was going to start demolishing the other floors and I couldn’t allow that. I’m getting him set up with housing and tomorrow you may approach him for company recruitment, or whatever.” He glared at absolutely everyone in the guildhall, repeating himself, “Tomorrow.”

Erick put on a smile and nodded at everyone in the guildhall.

Events proceeded rapidly from there.

Quite a few cheers; loud and boisterous, mostly from those who had sigaldry of iron upon them, and who Erick rapidly understood as the Iron Bandits. A few shouts from angry people, who were angry at the Iron Bandits, yelling that they would not poach this one from them. Many people gazed upon Erick’s various bits and bobs of silver, and at his staff, trying to discern which one of his tools was the strongest; almost everyone bet on the staff, though a few people looked at his rod and his breastplate, and gauged them a fair toss up. Some spoke of how the breastplate looked plain on the outside, but might have some really nice metamonds on the inside.

It did have some nice metamonds on the inside, actually, but Erick’s [Blessing of the Unseen] hid all that from view.

Almost everyone wondered what the fuck Erick had done to get a ‘pass’ for floors 3, 4, and 5.

But no one actually approached Erick, as Kinder took Erick to one of the desks and rapidly got him through a quick questioning from the teller. Kinder added a few words of his own when the topic of housing came up, and soon, Erick had gained a special metamond key with a prismatic gem embedded in the handle.

The teller bowed, saying, “Welcome to Utopia, Ashes Woodfield.” She rose, adding, “We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Kinder said, “Now let’s get you to your house, your storage, and then you can go about your business.”

Erick smiled a little. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Kinder led the way out of the delver guildhouse, Erick followed. Once they were beyond the doors, that’s when the crowds inside really started appearing and arguing with each other. Erick didn’t catch much of what they were saying, and he didn’t care to, for a lot of it seemed like mercenary company politics. He did get the distinct sense that they were figuring out some sort of order to approach Erick with offers to join their companies.

Erick would probably choose whichever one gave him the largest head start here in Utopia, which didn’t require him to do too much for them in return.

Kinder guided Erick to the end of the tower square, on the opposite end of where they had come in, and said quietly to Erick, “Offensive spellwork is heavily frowned upon inside the city, but defensive and utility spellwork is allowed. So we’re being tracked right now. If these circumstances were different, I would not be doing any of this how I am doing this, nor would I be offering this next offer: do you want to portal to your house? Or do you want to walk there, and likely track tens of curious people to your door?”

A few ‘empty’ spaces had cropped up in the manasphere within sight of Erick, but not anywhere too close, after Kinder’s announcement. Erick couldn’t see any people in those spaces, either, so Erick didn’t need Kinder to tell him that there were invisible people watching him, but it was still a nice gesture from the dungeon master.

Erick’s answer was easy. “I’ll take the portal.”

“Excellent!” Kinder waved a hand and a black [Gate] opened. He walked right on through.

Erick followed.

The [Gate] shut behind them, taking all the loud talking and the sound of crashing furniture with it.

The sounds of the world were a gentle thing once again, filled mostly with small songbirds and the rustling of wheat. For kilometers in every direction, all Erick could see was golden fields, while his new house lay directly in front of him.

It was a simple thing, and a bit run down.

A shingle roof, though a few were broken. Solid stone walls. A broken window out front and dusty furniture inside. All of this sat upon a hundred square meter plot of weedy land. The whole property was separated from the golden ocean beyond by a low, rock wall that was more made of rocks than proper brick or stone. It had a well, and some indoor plumbing, and a kitchen; though none of it was fancy, it was all there. The actual amenities were actually rather high-tech compared to the rest of the house.

“It even has a mage tower,” Erick said, smiling.

The tower was a squat thing at only two stories tall, but it was wide, and it had a library space at the top. The bottom looked large enough to house everything he’d need to make a functioning workshop.

“Not much of a tower, I’m afraid.” Kinder said, “You can change all that once you move in and designate it as yours. Once it is yours, then it will become truly yours, and you won’t be able to shift locations, because all your storage will end up here. No one will be able to steal from your house, either, so don’t have to worry about that.” Kinder said, “As a suggestion, if you want to make friends, then you can hire out the reconstruction through payments of metirons or metamonds. Or you can be a hermit and do it all yourself.”

“Can I adjust the mana level here? What about mana chambers?”

“There are a whole host of privacy options once you actually stick that key in the door and claim it as yours. The mana saturation level is one of them. But if you want a mana chamber... And probably a furnace, too?”

Erick nodded.

“Either work with a mercenary or delver company on that stuff; all the reputable ones have all those crafting areas already. Or, you can hire one of the Marii’s to get that stuff set up here. Or, if you still want your own space with furnaces and a mana chamber, then you must figure that out yourself; probably through a company.” Kinder added, “No one but dungeon masters like me will be able to access your land without your approval, but once you give your approval, then you don’t need to give it again. You must physically say ‘I rescind your approval to be on my land so-and-so’ if you want the dungeon to bar someone who they have unbarred from your land; everyone starts off barred from everyone else’s lands.”

Erick walked toward the door, saying, “This is so much different than on Veird.”

Kinder nodded. “Yes. Veird is horrifying.”

“Ohhhh. It’s not that bad.” Erick smiled as he placed the key in the door. “Every assassin is just another person waiting to be shown the error of their ways.” He turned the key.

The key broke, turning to ash in his hands, as a flash of light raced across his hand, and across every surface of the nearby world.

A chime echoed.

Welcome to your new home, Ashes Woodfield!

Preliminary security established. Anti-sense active.

House found in disrepair.

Beginning repairs.

The yard cleaned up; weeds vanishing in a flash. The broken windows repaired, as though they were never broken. The cracks in the walls sealed over as an apple tree grew in the front yard, and a gate popped into being in the rock wall, as the rock wall turned into something more respectable. The golden wheat ocean parted at the gate, revealing a road that led off into the distance; the way back to town.

A thousand little problems fixed themselves, and the front door swung open on its own accord.

Dust swept away, and lights flickered on inside, giving a warm glow to the polished wood floor and walls.

Repairs finished.

Activating basic furniture and storage.

A nice, large bed appeared in the main bedroom, while tables and chairs placed themselves in the kitchen, dining room, and elsewhere. It was all rather rustic furniture, made of thick wood, but it looked like it would last forever.

“Ah,” Erick said, as he stepped inside, and watched a series of large chests appear in what looked almost like a trophy room. “You guys really do want people to stay here, don’t you?”

Storage implemented.

Banking implemented.

Your house is your own!

Welcome to the Glittering Depths, Ashes Woodfield!

Kinder stayed outside, saying, “Of course we do.”

Erick looked back at the man, and how he had remained outside the house. “Come on in, then.”

Kinder grinned, then stepped inside the house. “I know your house is likely not what a dragon is used to but you can make that happen on your own. If you want a castle, or a compound, or whatever, you have plenty of room and lots of opportunity to make that happen. You’re ten minutes away from town by [Hidden Wind]stepping, but there’s still twenty kilometers between here and Utopia, so you’ve got lots of space. In fifty years, that might not be true anymore.” He added, “Or at least that’s what we hope.”

Erick nodded. “There’s a lot there, in that little statement. A lot of hope, Kinder. Would you like to talk about any problems you might need solving? Or save that for later?”

“I’ve heard that Benevolence dragons go around solving problems in the best way they can for everyone, just like their king. Is that what I have to expect from you?”

“If I see a problem I will solve it as peacefully as I can, but I will solve it.”

Kinder nodded. “Perhaps you should look into joining the guard, and having some legality behind your vigilantism.” He stepped backward, saying, “But for now! Welcome to your home in the Glittering Depths. Good day, Ashes Woodfield.”

“Good day, Kinder.”

Kinder gave a little bow, and then stepped backward, into darkness, and out of sight.

Erick took a good five minutes to walk around the house, to visually see everything he wanted to see and not just mana sense everything. But mostly, he was preparing himself to try out ‘storage’. Kinder had spoken of it a few times so Erick knew what to expect, but he was kinda wary of the whole thing.

Because, if what Kinder was saying was true, then Erick was kinda jealous.

Erick had long ago spoken to Jane and other people about some sort of ‘storage’ option, using his Gate Network, where people could put items into a personalized [Gate] that would drop those items off at a physical location in some bank somewhere. Retrieving those options would then be as easy as sticking one’s hand through a hole in the world, and pulling out those items.

Erick had done a bit of experimentation to see if the idea of a ‘personal mobile vault’ was even possible. He had rapidly concluded that to do such a thing would be way, way beyond his desired scope of influence. It would be one thing to make an object that allowed people to access their own storage area; that would be fine. But all Erick could really do was make a [Gate] node and then attach some various runic webs and powers to that node, which would do so much more than just be portable storage. It would allow the user basic access to their own private gate network. And that just wasn’t going to happen; not through Erick, anyway.

But according to Kinder, the Glittering Depths had worked out a private storage system.

Tentatively, Erick held out his Wand of [Drinking Food], and said, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

The wand vanished from his hand in a flicker of blackness, and then reappeared in the first storage chest, a few meters away from Erick. It just… Blipped right from his hand, into the chest. Just like that! It was obviously dungeon magic, and… It had worked.

Erick tried to retrieve the item with the same command, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

Nothing happened.

“Retrieve from storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

A small countdown appeared in the air, counting down from 100 seconds.

“Cancel Wand of [Drinking Food] retrieval.”

The countdown vanished.

Erick manually retrieved his wand from the chest, held it out as he stood above the open chest, and said, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

The wand vanished in a flicker of darkness again, to reappear right where the dungeon had placed it the last time.

“Storage, all gear.”

All of Erick’s gear and clothes vanished, leaving him completely nude in the middle of his house. His pants and shirt were folded and laid on top of each other in the second chest, with his socks tucked into one another, while his boots sat outside the chest. All his metamond stuff appeared in the first chest, but his staff and rod were too big to fit, so they ended up propped against the closest wall.

And Erick laughed.

“Retrieve all gear!”

A countdown began, 1000 seconds.

… Why the increased timer? Erick guessed it was due to the number of items retrieved. He didn’t care to wait that long, though, so he went to the storage and manually put his stuff back on, while also telling the system to stop the retrieval. The countdown vanished.

“Storage, all metirons.”

This time, only his metirons vanished and instantly reappeared in the first chest, as they had the first time Erick had stored all his items.

“Holy shit,” Erick said, mumbling to himself. “You figured out the personal mobile vault.”

With surprise on his face and elation in his heart, Erick put all his stuff back on, and smiled as he stepped outside of the house.

The Glittering Depths had some nice magic to it. This was a nice little location.

He’d be back later.

It was time to go talk to an expert on dungeon craft.

Erick shut the door behind him, and went to the gate, and then onto the road leading away from the house. With a flick of intent at his bracelet of [Hidden Wind], Erick started windstepping back to town. Within minutes, he had passed from his little road to a main road, which split in two directions, and which had a sign by the road pointing toward his house, reading ‘Ashes Woodfield’ in well-written Ecks. It was easy to see which way was toward town; all the buildings were over in that direction.

Erick would have gone racing down that way, but the main road was different from his side road. It had four lanes, each four meters across, with two of the lanes with arrows headed inward, and two with arrows headed outward. The outer tracks only had singular arrows, while the two inner tracks had double arrows.

It was an odd sort of system, not much in use in Greensoil, where most people were very low level, but some places did have road systems like this; where there were tracks for some people who were very fast, and others who were slow.

The Gate District at Candlepoint had a system almost like this one, but with moving wardlight images instead of static arrows on the ground, and with a whole lot more regulation.

Erick got onto the fast track headed inward and began moving fast, smiling a bit as he watched others zip past the other way, and dodging fast when he overtook people moving slower than him.

As Erick windstepped toward Utopia, he read hundreds of little signs on side roads. Some of those side roads were labeled as ‘Company Roads’, which was easy enough to understand. The Iron Bandits had their own road about 3 minutes from the edge of Utopia. The Crystal Raiders, of Veracity Speed, whom Erick had met on the top floor leading new people into the dungeon, had their road one minute out of town.

A warning sign right before the big buildings asked for people not to race into the city, and so, Erick slowed down, and began walking normally, though still quite fast. Soon Erick was back in the delver square, passing by people who glanced his way as he raced toward the tower, under his own physical power.

He raced up the wide staircase to the dungeon exit, and soon, he was back at the entrance zone of the Glittering Depths, where Ophiel waited by the entrance, fluffy, invisible, and intangible. Erick went right to the little guy, and then rushed outside, all of his gear turning back into ironcrystal and colored gems as he stepped outside the dungeon, recasting his Script-based magics.

He had almost expected the staff to stay real, but nope! That thing transformed back into crystal, too.

Awfully damned glowing crystal, which was different from all the rest of his dull crystal and dull gems. The thing was a ‘greater artifact’…

Erick suspected that it was a true artifact of the Old Cosmology. Or maybe a clear memory of one. An echo, almost. He could probably paradox the staff into full existence if he wanted, and if he actually tried for it, but for now, he was not going to do that.

For now, he said hello to Ophiel, spoke with Yggdrasil some, and with Poi and others, as he went home and started going through his library, looking for every book on the subject of mana crystals that he could find. There wasn’t a whole lot. Most of what he had was based on historical conjecture of things that happened in the Old Cosmology, or magic that was localized to Fairie and Ar’Cosmos. Erick had read it all once before, because there wasn’t a whole lot written on the subject of mana crystals, but in light of the new opportunities afforded by the Glittering Depths Erick wanted to have his ducks in a row before he went around asking others about the subject of Old Cosmology magic, and the myriad uses of mana crystals.

- - - -

Erick’s first option had been to go to Storm’s Edge; directly to Quilatalap, to ask him about everything that had happened in the Glittering Depths, about Old Cosmology mana crystals, and ancient artifacts of the past. But Quilatalap had been busy, and Erick didn’t want to push through into the dungeon when the undead servants outside had politely asked him not to come in yet, explaining that it wasn’t ready.

So Erick went to Oceanside instead, and limited his conversation to mana crystals and artifacts of the Old Cosmology.

And then Kirginatharp went and guessed practically everything that Erick did not tell him.

Erick rolled his eyes as he said, “I didn’t want to directly speak of the Glittering Depths, but I suppose I can.”

Kirginatharp laughed as he poured himself some more wine. The aged Headmaster of Oceanside had invited Erick to a sunset dinner at one of the prestigious restaurants in one of the taller towers at the arcanaeum. The sky had turned to burnished gold and lovely pink outside of the restaurant's wide windows, as servers brought out course after course of appetizer and main dish, gradually filling up the table between Erick and Kirginatharp. It was rather fantastic food, and the conversation would likely prove to be one of those long winded things, so Erick was thankful for Kirginatharp suggesting they take dinner together.

In a few hours, the sky would be filled with sparklers and [Decorative Fireball]s, too, in celebration of the Triumph of Light, so that was always nice to see. Oceanside did the end of year festival rather well.

Kirginatharp smiled as he lifted his cup. “Come now, Erick! I might not have as many claws in as many hoards as you do these days, but I still know most of what happens in this world, and of course I would have heard of Atunir’s Second Script dungeon.” With a smirk, but a little more serious, Kirginatharp said, “Most of what I have heard is from people who have failed to get past the second floor, so I would greatly love to hear the whole story from the top again, with some specifics this time.”

“They seem rather private down there, and I plan to have some magical experiments down there, so I don’t want everyone to know who I am down there.”

“Yes yes, fine fine.” Kirginatharp chuckled. “I won’t tell the world that you’re Ashes Woodfield—”

“I didn’t even tell you my name down there!” Erick laughed. “Bah!”

Kirginatharp laughed again. “I also won’t tell everyone that you’re looking to release Yggdrasil from his seal earlier, either.”

“If I thought you would, then I never would have told you that, either.” Erick gave Kirginatharp a Look. “And we discussed this already. Why bring it up?”

“We haven’t spoken about it in person, and it’s serious, Erick.”

“I plan on Yggdrasil’s release being as minimally disruptive as I can.”

“Why are you even entertaining that idea? Is Yggdrasil truly this irresponsible?”

Erick leveled a disapproving Look at the old dragon, saying, “I know this is an important topic, but to call Yggdrasil ‘irresponsible’ is too much. My son is perhaps the furthest thing from irresponsible. … And the boy has a girlfriend, I think, and he wants to be separate from me. There is no ‘great answer’ besides that one, and it is enough for me. Let it be enough for you, too.”

Kirginatharp seemed vaguely admonished, as he said, “Children must grow.”

Erick nodded, and then he began to speak of the Glittering Depths, from the top.

Half an hour later, Erick finished. He even retrieved the Staff of Divine Absolution from home, to show Kirginatharp. Kirginatharp seemed vaguely interested in it, but not really.

Kirginatharp had eaten his way through several courses and Erick had gone through two, and now, Erick waited a little, for Kirginatharp to digest the words Erick had given him.

Kirginatharp set down his fork and knife, and said, “I haven’t expended much attention towards the phantoms my students have sometimes seen when inside the Dark of the dungeons… But perhaps I should. I will have to get back to you on that.

“As for the business of Atunir’s specific memories…” Kirginatharp paused in deep thought, then he said, “I don’t know the specifics, for those are lost to time and the Sundering. But I do know that some person linked to Atunir invented the expanded bolter around 250,000 years ago, though that date and that whole story is apocryphal. That story goes, that some rebels threw off their oppressors with highly-refined bolters, and Atunir’s church even has a prayer: ‘Out of the ashes, comes new life, under the blessings of Atunir’. I don’t believe there is a link, but there might be.” Kirginatharp added, “You know, when we were making the Script, [Force Bolt] spell saw a great deal of lessening. And mostly due to the expanded bolter. Bolters, unchained, are very dangerous weapons. What we did, exactly, was splitting that power. We took the [Grand Decaying Bloody Bolts]-types of Bolts, like the one you put into that staff. and made sure that no one could simply make that spell all on their own. To make such a spell under the Script, one has to first make all the pieces of the puzzle, and then put them together in a coherent way, as you have done.

“In the Old Cosmology, all you’d have to do was mush together all those dangerous Elements along with the Intent to touch the enemy with that Bolt, and it would work. You could even throw in some Elemental Destruction, too, and it all worked fine for a Bolt! Truly terrible magic, that.

“Breaking up the Bolt was one of the better things we did with the Script.”

For a moment, Erick was stunned.

And then he asked, “What else happened to make magic what it is today?”

Kirginatharp said, “A lot.”

Erick glanced to his bolter, and to the ‘mana crystal’ at the top. Then he asked, “How about we just stick to mana crystals, then. They’re not allowed under the Script for some reason?”

Kirginatharp nodded. “They’re probably not working correctly inside the Glittering Depths if the items that come out of there end up looking like that crystal stick of yours.” He added, “Mana crystals don’t work exactly how they should work inside Fairie, either, but that is mostly a function of Fairie being alive itself, and able to decide how it wishes to function, and less an actual natural property of that distant land, or of mana crystal. Nothing in Fairie is ‘natural’ in any way whatsoever.

“But to answer the question:

“In the Old Cosmology, one of the main ways that people used mana crystals was as purifiers of mana, in order to accrete specific mana types into their cores; the mana altering thing you know of.

“The second way people used mana crystals was as reservoirs of spellwork. Much like what the Glittering Depths has done, but different. The ‘iron’ there serves as a core, while the ‘diamonds’ serve as spellwork. Used to be you didn’t need anything except the ‘diamond’. A properly made ‘diamond’, when located in a properly mana rich environment, could eternally create a spell… Which is, again, sort of like what the Glittering Depths is already doing with their magic that automatically recasts itself.” Kirginatharp said, “You can’t really do that under the Script because of the Propagation Ban… You could probably do it with some soul surgery and some bio-magic to twitch a ‘go’ signal to that part of your soul when the biological part of you notices that the magic is fading. Can’t really do that directly without mana crystals, which generally do a bunch of magic on their own, under the right circumstances.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Automatically cast spells are normal?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“That’s different.”

“Quite different.”

“Mana crystals can utilize external mana?”

Kirginatharp inhaled a little, unsure how to condense the myriad of ways in which Erick was wrong down to something small. “… Well. Yes, mana crystals can utilize external mana, but only when under certain circumstances. One of those main circumstances is that there needs to be a specific solidness in the mana, or a specific flow of specific varieties, in order for the mana crystal to form and function. Souls usually provide this shift in manasphere.

“Cores and rads are sort of like living mana crystals, for instance…

“But not quite. That difference is mostly academic, and mostly categorized by the presence or absence of a soul.

“Elemental Essences are probably the closest thing Veird has to true mana crystals, for Essence is the physical manifestation of an element without any direction to them. If you add direction to them, then they flow into the soul, or into the rad or core, and grant that sort of base power to the person imbibing them. Think of essences as… Supersaturated liquids, for instance.

“It takes intent, without soul, to make a true mana crystal; to make something that can act autonomously within the mana. And that is what the Script prevents, because that sort of thing can propagate rather fast. Souls still condense down crystals and make rads and become elementals all the time, though; stone elementals, air elementals, etcetera. Slimes, too.” Kirginatharp shrugged. “Anyway. Mana crystals were much too much Wizardry for Veird, so the Script prevents that, for once you have enough power and clarity of intent then you can make a mana crystal which makes reality become Reality all on its own. Propagation spreads, and in this sort of New Cosmology, that sort of propagation would kill us all. Too much Wizardry, really.”

Erick took a moment to think about all that.

“So by calling mana crystals Wizardry… You’re saying they’re not engineerable? Not scientific?”

“… Well. I’d hesitate to say that, exactly. But condensing a spell down into a crystal is much more ephemeral than writing down words on a page, or following a spell formula. It’s more like taking the very act of writing words on a page and putting that down onto a piece of paper. Any hundred people could imagine that same action a hundred different ways, and they’d all be right. Mana crystals are too arcane; they’re not proper, understandable magic.” Kirginatharp paused. “If that’s how the kids are using those words these days. Every few decades the meanings of ‘arcane’ and ‘magic’ switch, I swear.” He chuckled. “The kids in the classrooms are already talking like ‘Particle Magic’ and ‘Scientific’ are one-in-the-same.”

Erick smirked. “Before I came to Veird, I used to think that ‘magic’ meant a lot more ‘arcane and unknowable’ than it means how you use that word. ‘Magic’ almost means ‘scientific’ to you.”

“No no. See. ‘Scientific’ means having to do with the mundane practices; no magic involved at all. I am actually quite cross with the students that conflate ‘science’ with ‘Particle Magic’,” Kirginatharp said, with mirth in his voice.

Erick grinned.

“But to get back to it: I say that mana crystals are more acts of Wizardry than proper magic, but truthfully all of that mana crystal stuff is so very outdated, and more steeped in myth than any of the magic I usually get up to. Wizards were the only ones that could truly make mana crystals, anyway, and we’ve no use for them here on Veird. They break systems of power just as much as they enhance systems of power.” Kirginatharp shrugged. “Perhaps the Old Wizards knew how mana crystals actually worked, though; all the ins and outs and sideways of them all, and in ways that would be truly repeatable and teachable. Those powerhouses were always rather secretive with their largest of powers. Perhaps there are old caches of Wizard magics lost to time or buried in the Dark, or in the deeper recesses of various churches and old places. I did manage to find some more tomes on the subject since last you attempted Full Wizard. Would you like those books?”

“Absolutely!”

Kirginatharp nodded. “Now, if this were the Old Cosmology, I would also suggest you speak to certain peoples, but we’re here, on Veird, after the Sundering, and certain peoples are still proving themselves as non-insane. So do some small experimenting on your own, before you go asking those who have true knowledge on the subject again.”

“I’ve got time. I might corner the healing market down there in the Glittering Depths while I experiment, though.”

Kirginatharp laughed loudly and happily. “Ahhh! Healing… Now there’s a large topic about yet another thing that is made near obsolete by the Script. Truly one of the great things about Veird, I think… But also, perhaps there’s too much healing?”

“Oh no. I disagree completely.” Erick said, “[Cleanse], [Mend], [Greater Treat Wounds]. They are the most wonderful parts of this world. I can’t imagine a Veird without them, and I wouldn’t want to. I must imagine that the Healing parts of the Script are rather intensive, though.”

“It’d take divine magic to make Healing Magic work as well as it does without the Script; this much is very true. But the lower levels of Healing can be replicated with a Bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation], as you have discovered.”

As Erick and Kirginatharp began the next course, fireworks began to illuminate the night sky outside, like pastel white blossoming rains, vibrant spreading glows, and exploding radiance that split the night into day. This sight was a nightly occurrence here at Oceanside during the Triumph of Light, and Kirginatharp’s amber eyes glinted as he smiled at the sight of it all.

As the first salvos of [Decorative Fireball]s began to fade, Erick asked, “Have you made a Second Script dungeon you’re happy with, yet?”

Kirginatharp’s soft smile remained as he said, “I’m up to 22 false starts… Perhaps I should try again. Remake one of the lesser ones into something stronger.”

Erick waited.

And Kirginatharp eventually began, “This notion of having spells outside of oneself, as in Atunir’s dungeon, is something I do not agree with. Power should not be able to be stolen or destroyed as easily as destroying someone’s wand or staff, or what-have-you. No. I fully agree with the current Script’s stance of imbuing power into the user in the form of spells implanted into the soul… I do like the idea of limiting power, though. It’s ten spells in the Glittering Depths? Well that is certainly an idea.”

“Buffing magic seems to be viable there, too, unlike in the Script.”

Kirginatharp shook his head, saying, “The Script does stats as a generalized boost, to level the field for everyone. There were many mana miners in the Old Cosmology that found great success in disallowing unique buffing magics, and instead giving general buffs to everyone. Veird was already like this, and so we chose to keep it that way.”

“Ah… Well okay then? I did not know that.”

“But 10 spells and some general stats might be nice.” Kirginatharp said, “The amount of mana that the Glittering Depths gives everyone, as a matter of course, is simply too much, though. 100,000 mana per hour? As base? No.”

Erick chuckled. “That is too much, I agree. This whole thing has me wondering what is a good average rate, though, especially when future lands will have a great deal more defense due to Node Networks.”

“Ahh. Yet another nuance. If a Second Script doesn’t present as the current Script presents, then will Node Networks go away? Perhaps.”

“… Oh. Well yes. That is a concern… Especially if only 10 or so spells are allowed at any one time— Well then you just have to have the spells able to be switched out, like in the Glittering Depths.”

“Hmm. Perhaps. I admit that the particular nuance of a ‘Storage’ is quite interesting. We tried to do that once, but it was a complete failure in so many different ways. Many of which you already experienced with your own foray into that arena.”

“It’d be possible for someone to make [Gate] on their own and then use that to service the storage needs of a group of people through specialized implementation of their gate space.” Erick said, “But that’s offering valuables to people who have no idea how valuable those valuables truly are. There’s a saying on Earth; ‘pearls before swine’.”

Kirginatharp chuckled a little. “ ‘Gold to monsters’ is a similar saying… And I wouldn’t want to grant wide scale easy movement to every single person in the world again, like with [Teleport]…”

Kirginatharp and Erick spoke of various things, from possible forms of a Second Script to small political happenings the world over, as they ate a nice large meal, and watched the night sky explode with color and vibrancy.

Afterward, Kirginatharp granted Erick copies of some old books, nicely wrapped in a large crate, as he said, “I might have underplayed it before, but I did manage to find quite a few new books on mana crystals, buried deep in my collection since the last time you asked of crystals. I wish you better luck this next time in becoming a Full Wizard, directly after Yggdrasil’s re-sealing.”

Erick chuckled. “Your mother has already made the order of events with this whole resealing very well known.” Erick smiled. “Thank you, Kirginatharp.”

“I’m not worried. It’s probably just some mental hangup that you’ll work through soon enough. I don’t believe that [Onward] story I heard at all.”

Erick’s eyes briefly went wide. And then he laughed.

Kirginatharp smiled. “I was waiting for you to bring it up all night long, Erick.”

“I just hope it’s not true. Thinking about it is disheartening.”

Kirginatharp nodded.

- - - -

Poi sent, ‘Jane is connected now.’

Erick smiled wide as he closed his book and stood up from his chair in the library. As Poi’s presence faded into the background, Jane’s consciousness butted up against Erick’s, and Erick happily sent, ‘Hello, Jane!’

‘Hey, dad. Heard you were busy in a dungeon lately.’

Erick felt a warmth in his chest at Jane’s voice. ‘I’m going to check on Storm’s Edge later, but I went to a different dungeon recently that was very interesting! Have you been to the Glittering Depths, just north of Greendale?’

‘Noooo…? No. Don’t think so. Let me check some records.’

Erick imagined Jane was flipping through some nearby files—

‘Oh! Found it.’ Jane paused.

Erick waited.

‘… Says here it’s a Second Script dungeon— Oh. It’s that dungeon that the church of Atunir made several years ago.’ Jane sent, ‘Nope. Never been to that one. It’s a well-made dungeon according to my records. We’ve never had a complaint. Are you checking out dungeons for gods now? For Scripts for new worlds, if this Yggdrasil unsealing makes everything happen much faster than everyone is ready? Or something?’

‘Oh nothing that drastic— Well. Atunir did ask me to go see her Second Script dungeon, and I did, and it was pretty interesting! I might go around to some others out there, later, to check out other Second Scripts. But anyway—’ Erick began, ‘You know practically all there is to know about dungeons, yes?’

‘I like to think so, yes.’

‘Okay. So. Ever had a person go into a dungeon, and that person [Witness] a memory of the Old Cosmology and possibly a memory of their old life?’

‘… Yes.’

Erick exclaimed, ‘You have?!’

Jane sighed a little, then said, ‘Yes. It’s not something we like to broadcast, but it does happen to some people. I take it this happened to you?’

‘Yes! It did. I talked to Atunir about it, and she said I likely had some sort of connection to the Old Cosmology history she put into that dungeon, either because I made myself have a connection to that past, or because of— Well. You know how people make mana, and mana never really goes away? And that mana can coalesce into new life a long time later? It’s sort of like reincarnation, but not at all, because though the original mana might be the same, and the inheritor might have memories of the past, it’s not really reincarnation at all.’ Erick knew how it was going to sound before he even said it, so he blurted it out as fast as he could, ‘Well maybe the mana that came around and started me, or however it works, came from the Old Cosmology.’

‘The Xoatists are going to have a festival day if they ever find out about this.’ Jane laughed a little. ‘I’m almost tempted to tell one of them. You’ve met Andri, right?’

Erick’s heart sank as a profound dread filled him. Jane was teasing, of course, but she was still teasing.

‘… I have met Andri, yes.’

Jane laughed again. ‘Andri is a good guy, but I won’t tell anyone anything, dad. I do want to know more about whatever you experienced down there in the Glittering Depths, though.’

Erick relaxed, and asked, ‘What do you know about the place?’

‘Let me read a little bit more.’ A few moments later, Jane sent, ‘The paperwork I have on it paints the Glittering Depths as a rather well-made Grand Dungeon, with every single person who actually manages to get to the main floors mostly desiring to… Hmm. To live down there? That’s not too unusual. Says they have a False Society down there that’s become fully cognizant, and which has been cleared by our teams as acceptable. Now that is unusual… I’m gonna have to ask around about that, actually… And about this ‘mana density’ thing that’s going on there.’ Jane turned her full attention back to her father, saying, ‘I’m the problem solver and the Glittering Depths has no problems, so I’ve never been, so I doubt I will need to actually do anything with this dungeon, but... Tell me all about your trip! I want to hear it all. This is the first dungeon you’ve actually gone into without Quilatalap there, right?’

Jane tried to crush down her little bit of enthusiasm as she spoke, but Erick could tell she was excited to talk about dungeons with her father. And Erick was kinda thrilled to finally be able to talk about real experiences inside a dungeon, too.

So Erick began, ‘It was my first without Quilatalap, yes. So there are 5 starter floors, and then you end up in the City Restored, which is where everyone lives. But on the first floor, you start off at the Destroyed City, and the mana density of the air is at 80%, so your mana sense is knocked down by a good fifth…’

An hour of easy conversation passed, with Erick speaking of his experiences in the Glittering Depths and Jane speaking of her own experiences in the more dangerous dungeons of the world.

‘Killing a core is never a calm thing,’ Jane sent, ‘Because as soon as the core breaks you’re stranded in the Dark, and that’s when things get weird, more than dangerous. Some recruits I’ve had at this job look like they’re going to go all the way, to be real veterans one day. But then I take them out for their first core breaking, and we’re there, floating in the Dark, and they proceed to go absolutely raging insane… Thankfully we have some good Mind Mages on staff and some of those recruits can come back from the edge… Still dangerous to go that deep into the Dark, though. I would advise you against going to any Endless Delves for much the same reason; those places get weird. I’ve gone to a few of those, but not really, because the core is never down there.’

Erick got what she was saying. ‘I won’t go diving into the real Dark anytime soon.’

Jane laughed. ‘Maybe you believe that, but there was that [Onward] thing which I don’t fully believe, but now you’re headed into dungeons for the first real time in your life, and playing around with mana crystals again… I suppose you’ve always had more responsibilities to the Surface and otherwise to forgo dungeon delving, so it makes sense you never really went into one for that reason… I love you, dad. Don’t do anything too crazy, okay?’

Erick smiled to himself as he leaned back in his chair, sending, ‘I love you too, Jane. And it’s just experimenting with mana crystals while I wait on Greendale to reopen the Denutha Odaari case. Nothing too crazy. And I won’t even be down there too much because then I won’t be available out here.’

With a gentle sort of happiness, Jane sent, ‘I’m glad that you’re finally taking some time off, dad. Talk to you later.’

‘Talk to you later!’

- - - -

After having a nice sleep in his own bed, Erick woke and made breakfast for everyone, which was a rare treat for him more than it was for everyone else; Rizala was actually a better cook. But Erick hadn’t had much time to cook in a long time, and he kinda missed it. Afterward, he poked at the dungeons of Storm’s Edge again, seeing if ‘Vanya’ was able to speak. Again, the skeletons at the entrance politely asked Erick to come back another time.

Erick pressed the issue enough to have ‘Vanya’ throw her consciousness into the skeletons at the entrance. Quilatalap rapidly explained that he couldn’t talk right now; that he was at a critical juncture in the feedback system he was implementing between all the various elemental dungeons which would compose the Grand Dungeon. With Quilatalap being quite eager to get back to work, Erick decided not to press anymore. He’d be back later.

- - - -

Wearing his Ashes Familiar Form, dressed in his armor and trinkets from the dungeon, and carrying a suitcase filled with various supplies that was hidden behind Privacy magics, Erick set his Platform down onto the Platform Square, in the Glittering Depths compound. The sky was brilliant blue and the air smelled of fresh greenery, as Erick hefted his staff in his free hand, and said some small farewells to Ophiel, once again. Ophiel didn’t take up his normal position, though, because of what was happening at the Glittering Depths, and which Erick would be dealing with soon enough.

The dungeon didn’t have a whole lot of people in the main courtyard this morning, which seemed kinda normal, but Erick couldn't rush into the dungeon like he had initially planned, because a checkpoint lay in front of the dungeon keep. There was no easy getting to the black [Gate] today.

Erick slowed his roll as he exited the Platform Square tunnel, and entered the courtyard of the dungeon.

There were twenty people in line to get through the new checkpoint.

Casting his Sight through Ophiel, to check on the surroundings, Erick saw lots of people who were not here last time. They were easy to pick out from the people who ran this place, because the new people all wore dark green dress armor, or dark green suits, or some combination thereof. They were the inquisitors of Greendale; the official inquisition against hostile forces of the Greensoil Republic.

They were basically the secret police.

Erick sighed a little, and then kept moving, to get into the quiet line leading into the dungeon. Erick didn’t recognize a single person anywhere at all, but gradually, and then quickly, people recognized him. Faces began to turn, and eyes began to focus.

And the inquisitor problem was larger than he had initially sensed, and he had tripped them up just as much as they tripped him up.

Erick was currently running his personal anti-mana sense magics, so when people glanced his way and actually saw him, some people had some outsized reactions, since their sight didn’t match with their senses. One woman over by the surface delver guildhouse jerked as though she had been slapped, as though she could not understand how Erick had moved into the line just ahead of her without her seeing him. Erick watched as that woman chided herself, reminding herself that she shouldn’t be so reliant on only her mana sense.

Erick was having almost the exact same reaction, as he saw, from this inside-courtyard-view, a good ten more people than he sensed, but he kept his outward emotions in check. This was going to be a problem, wasn’t it?

Right on cue, here came the manifestation of the problem.

A large man in gleaming green armor and a shorter man in a green suit casually walked out of a tunnel to the side of the dungeon keep courtyard, out of one of the many, many anti-mana sense areas Erick now noticed all around here, their eyes already fixed on him. Erick had to hand it to whoever crafted the anti-mana sense areas; they weren’t overbearing, and they didn’t hide the presence of the new checkpoint. And so, Erick had walked right into this trap.

Being here, in the center of the dungeon keep courtyard, was to be in the center of the crosshairs of a good 15 mages and warriors from Greendale; at least 3 or 4 teams of elites, all working together. Almost all of them had been on low alert, but now, Erick saw people set down books and rise from their seats, to turn his way.

The tall, armored man walked up to Erick, to stand two meters away. “Ashes Woodfield. You are wanted for questioning by the inquisition, along with all other high-ranking delvers of the Glittering Depths. But since you’re here, we’re talking to you now. Will you come peacefully?”

“… Depends on where.”

A lot of the inquisitors around the square did not like that ‘backtalk’.

But unlike Erick’s last encounter with inquisitors, and unlike the majority of the other inquisitors, the large man did not seem to care that Erick had challenged his authority. He seemed at ease in his own power, both in posture and in tone, as he simply said, “The inquisition has offices beyond that tunnel back there. We would conduct this question there.”

Erick pointed his feet in that direction. “Lead the way.”

To Erick’s surprise, the man led the way without complaint.

Usually inquisitors were a lot more pushy and horrible.

As Erick left the courtyard, things began to return to how they had been, before Erick had shown, with various inquisitors relaxing a little inside their mana senseless zones, while the inquisitors at the queue of delvers resumed their questioning, and letting people pass if they submitted well enough.

The whole thing rankled, but Erick could keep his emotions in check for a while.

- - - -

Erick sat down in a second-story room that didn’t look like it got much use, except as perhaps a break room for guests, or some other sort of non-used space. It had a nice view of the countryside, and a lesser view of the dungeon area, along with a couch and a few chairs and a low table. As Erick put his box of Privacy’d books down, a small bit of dust drifted off the grey stone floor.

The man in green armor sat down across from Erick. His skin was the color of dark wood, his hair was close cropped, and his face betrayed no anger, or anything else, except mild annoyance, and only now that they were out of public sight.

This room was a hundred meters from the nearest other person —that Erick could mana sense— so anyone who was mana sensing who wasn’t also hidden from that sense, would have to be rather damned good. Not many people could fit that bill.

Eh. There were probably people right on the other side of that wall over there, where the shorter man had glanced earlier. Whatever. Erick was rather secure in himself; he wasn’t worried about a real trap.

The armored man introduced himself, “I’m Inquisitor Wess Clover.” He brought out a truthstone and set it on the table between them. It glowed green. “This is a truthstone. Green is the truth, red is a lie. Blue is further questioning required. Do you understand?”

“I do.”

Wess nodded. “Do you know of the Manfields?”

Erick instantly knew what this was about.

When he had come to Greendale the first time, with Poi, and met those other pushy inquisitors, Poi had dropped Mind Mage obfuscation protocol to tell Erick that there had been some demonic killings in the north of Greendale, and that the inquisitors were on high alert because of that. And so, when Erick had had some time afterward, he had looked into all of that intrigue, mostly by asking Zolan for information. Zolan soon gave him a Knowledge-Mage-collected folder of information on those murders. The specifics in that mostly-public information had been rather light, for all of that information had been collected from other Knowledge Mage sources which the government controlled around here, but Erick knew what most of those in the nobility knew.

The Manfields were the first victims of that demonic murder spree. Other nobility followed, each killing more gruesome than the last.

“I do know of the Manfields.”

Green stone.

Surprised look on Wess’s smaller partner’s face.

And Wess’s eyes narrowed. Some of his easy nature vanished. He slowly asked, “Do you know of the Chesterfields?”

“I’m going to save us some time.” Erick said, “I know practically everything that the public knows about the demonic murders of Greendale, because I asked a Knowledge Mage about all that and they gave me a rather decent information packet. Other than that, and unless these murders happen or these murderers come under my direct watch, I have no interest in involving myself in whatever is happening there, but only because your government wouldn’t want me involved.”

Wess glanced at the steady green glow of the stone—

Wess’s partner’s eyes were wide, as he stressed, “We need you to come down to the district to give testimony to that effect.”

“I will not.”

The shorter man’s countenance instance shifted to something darker. He lightly glared at Erick, saying, “We will compel you if necessary.”

“You can try. You will fail.”

The shorter man almost went on a tirade—

But Wess interrupted his partner. “Thank you for your cooperation, Ashes Woodfield. You’re free to go. I do ask that if you see any demonic summoners inside the Glittering Depths, that you take it upon yourself to report them, please. Do not involve yourself in the affairs of Greendale.”

The shorter man struggled to remain silent as he glared at Wess, and then Erick.

Erick just nodded, grabbed his books and his staff, stood, and then left.

- - - -

It took Erick twenty four minutes, 36 seconds, to get to the front of the checkpoint line into the dungeon —he counted!— even though there were only 17 people ahead of him. Some of those people glanced at Erick with wide eyes, before suddenly averting their gaze, to stare forward, or to talk quietly among the people they were delving with. Everyone in line now knew he was ‘Ashes Woodfield’, and everyone here knew he was at the top of the Decoration board. Many looked at his staff, and wondered at the capabilities of the gently-glowing length of runed crystal. Others looked at the cerulean stone on his bracelet, and knew it as Healing Magic; Healing Magic that they wanted, but could not have… Or at least not yet. Not here, in this land of inquisitors.

Erick had cast his mind elsewhere the entire time he waited in line, to distract himself from the invasive questions he heard at the front of the line, and how the delvers all answered those questions as best they could. All of those questions were recorded in the magical ‘book’ that wasn’t a real book, or else Erick would have been able to spy on everyone else who had come through the checkpoint. It was just a metal book-shaped artifact that copied the information written down onto another book elsewhere, while the original information got erased from the metal pages of the artifact.

All of this was rather infuriating.

And now Erick was at the front of the line, and he had to actually pay attention to these infuriating people. Erick told himself that they were just doing jobs, looking for murderers, though, and that helped.

“Name?” asked the bored recorder. He was an old man with heavy scars and white hair, and the body of a much younger man. He looked tough, which was probably why he was here, at this ‘desk job’, while two other guards of lesser stature flanked the door to the dungeon keep.

“Ashes Woodfield.”

“You know it’s illegal to walk around with anti-mana sense magics?” said the man, without care. “Both on you, and on your baggage.”

“It’s not illegal to do that at all.”

The rather bored man became less bored. He looked up at Erick. “… Aye. I suppose it’s not technically illegal for the nobility. You nobility?”

“It’s not illegal for anyone to walk around under a mana sense obscuring spell. It is not illegal for them to protect themselves with Privacy Magics. What is illegal is [Invisibility], and I am not using that.”

Ophiel was using ‘[Invisibility]’ magics, but not that specific spell, and he was not here right now; Erick did not lie.

The old man grinned, predatory. “A barrister, have we?”

Erick couldn’t help himself. “What is illegal is what you’re doing here with this interrogation. Dungeons can open entrances anywhere they want to, and they will, all the time, if the people who want to visit those dungeons can’t get into them through the proper channels. By doing this right here you are tempting this dungeon to open entrances outside of known parameters.”

There were 21 people behind Erick, and all of them shied backward as Erick spoke.

The older man leaned back in his chair, still grinning. “We can break laws to find the dissenters among your lot. You cannot.”

“Maybe Greendale wouldn’t have so many dissenters if the crown wasn’t so tyrannical in how it handles people who speak out against your government.”

“Ah ha! Now that qualifies for collection!” The old man stood. He was easily 7 feet tall. If it were possible for orcols and humans to have children, Erick would have thought the man half orcol, but no, he was probably just using [Alter Size]. “Now will you go quietly? Or do I have to…”

His voice trailed off as a tendril of thought connected to him.

Erick traced the tendril to the left, where it faded into the manasphere.

But way over by the edge of the courtyard stood Wess, who had a tendril of thought coming off of his head.

The old man went stiff, and angry, before flashing over into reluctant compliance.

Then the old man sat down. “You’re free to go, Mister Woodfield.”

Erick really could not help himself. “I was hoping you would try it. But I suppose I’m enough of a special exception to get special treatment, eh? That’s fucking shameful of your entire government.”

The old man said nothing. But he did grind his teeth, behind a strained smile.

Erick walked by, into the dungeon keep, directly under the hundred-leg invisible sacred spider that occupied almost the entire upper interior shadows of the building. That spider moved a fraction, barely shifting its stance at all, to look at Erick as he walked underneath, into the black [Gate] of the dungeon.

- - - -

The dungeon entrance had a clear line of sight to the inquisitors’ checkpoint, so a lot of people had seen his little altercation.

More than a few people gave Erick looks as he walked down the dirt path, to the hills in the distance where the dungeon portals led to deeper in the dark. A lot of those people were dressed in their full finery of metiron fullplate or cloaks, some with massive floating shields of silver, and some with floating swords of the same, looked almost ready for war. But they were inside the dungeon, where dungeon magic ruled, and so they could not step outside to give any of the inquisitors any real grief; all their dungeon magic would fail.

Erick saw some kindred souls in the eyes of those waiting for the inquisitors to take one step into the dungeon. He also saw a lot of quieted anger, and quiet contemplation. There was no need to [Witness] what had happened here, to understand what had happened in the minds of these warriors, lined up for war, but Erick wasn’t going to make too many judgments, for now.

One woman did stand out to him, though. Veracity Speed, in her suit of chainmail and with her big shield, decided to approach Erick as he walked past.

“I knew you were special, but I didn’t think you were insane.”

“If they would have tried shit, I would have ended it. Nothing more to it than that.” Erick’s Script magic began to fade as his dungeon magic took hold, and all his various items fully transformed into shining silver with dollops of colored radiance. He looked around, meeting the silent eyes of many of the people here, but none of them barred his path. From what Erick was seeing… He guessed that this happening here was a big deal, but also that other stuff was going on. Had they decided to let Veracity speak to him first? Oh. Yes. That was it. They were scouting Erick, and also dealing with this inquisitor shit. Erick decided to start with ‘small’ talk. “You have a badge on your chainmail showing you as a Crystal Raider, and everyone else seems to be showing off their own sigaldry. I take it this overreach by the inquisitors is a normal thing, that you all have to push back against?”

Veracity slowly nodded as she walked with Erick. “It happens every so often. This is holy land, consecrated by the Church of Atunir so they have little legal power, but that doesn’t stop them from trying shit, so we all come out and make sure nothing too illegal happens. It’s practically the only place in Greensoil where we can do this and not be instantly shut down, though there are a few others. Rare, they are, these precious places.”

They had left behind the majority of people, and Erick’s various Privacy magics on his box of mana crystal books was beginning to fail completely. So Erick hefted the bag and said, “Storage, this bag.” The bag vanished in flickers of darkness, and Erick felt lighter for it, because a few people had been eyeing that bag and the very powerful Privacy magics he had placed onto it. Erick said to Veracity, “I knew about standard international dungeon law keeping Greensoil in check, but I wasn’t aware that church law was able to do the same.”

“That law works most of the time, but Atunir is all-inclusive, so Greendale always thinks Her church is the source of this demon shit, even though we try to stop that all the time.”

“And yet the Quiet War still rages.”

Veracity frowned a little at that, looking down the path instead of at Erick. “… Things were going well, with the Wizard in power, and with the Gate Network open between us and the Wasteland Kingdoms. I actually visited Atunir’s Church of the Delta at the Grace River… And then two years ago we had those dungeon breaks, and the Open Network got rescinded, and now we’re back to this mess.” She glanced backward. “Hopefully the inquisitor checkpoint will only stay there for a day…” She turned back to Erick. “They were looking to talk to a few people, and you were one of them.”

Erick stopped.

Veracity stopped beside him.

“… They were specifically looking to talk to me?”

“It’s not often someone upends the Decoration board and then gets personally invited by Dungeon Master Kinder to skip 3 floors.” Veracity said, “They’re not the only ones who wished to speak to you, though it is quite upsetting for a lot of us that such an interesting development got shadowed by the inquisitors.”

Some of Erick’s anger vanished, for Veracity was trying to be as personable as she could possibly be, in light of that awfulness back there at the entrance. Pushing past his own reluctance to do what he was about to do, Erick said, “Please make your pitch.”

Instantly, Veracity said, “We Crystal Raiders wish to put in orders for as many Bracelets of [Self Rejuvenation] as we can get, at the standard rate of 150,000 gold per bracelet, or whatever sorts of arrangements we can come to involving any sorts of other transactions you desire.”

Some people standing at the vigil against the inquisitors whipped around at Veracity’s words. A few of them shared looks with each other, and then two individuals started to approach; a red haired man, and a tall woman in fullplate.

Erick decided to softly announce to the people coming his way, and also to Veracity, “I wasn’t planning on selling so many [Rejuvenation] items, but I can certainly do that, if that is what people want. I will need to get a mana chamber set up in my house, first, but then things will happen fast enough. I won’t be here all that often, but I’ll be making a bunch of stuff, since I plan on working on metamonds a lot. Specific orders are welcome, within reason.”

Veracity got a gold look in her eyes, as she instantly offered, “We would like to recruit you to the Crystal Raiders—”

The man of middling height with bright red hair, rushed forward, saying, “The Backroom Warriors offer assistance to all crafters through priority access to Marii’s Machinery—”

“The Iron Bandits can get you everything you could possibly want,” said the tall woman wearing silver fullplate, with a long sword and a long dagger on her left hip. She was pale, but her eyes and hair were so brown they were almost black. In most settings she would be rather casually beautiful, but her voice had a power to it that was all her own, and that overrode all other speakers, “We can fund everything you want to do and grant you mana chambers and other crafting facilities, and you can sell to anyone. We won’t determine your prices at all, or your work schedule. We just ask that you work with us for the creation of the occasional specialty items, and that your work schedule isn’t too slow. If we find your craftsmanship unacceptable, then this partnership will end and we will ask for the return of the items and workshops we set up for you.”

Veracity and the red-head guy did not interrupt the tall woman, while simultaneously looking a little ashamed of their own offers, which told Erick almost everything he needed to know about the Iron Bandits’s offer; no one else could compete with the Bandits.

And since Erick didn’t feel like really establishing himself as a permanent entity here in the Glittering Depths…

Erick said to the tall woman, who was just about eye level with ‘Ashes’, “Mana chamber on my property. Metiron furnaces and such, too. I’m not making you a staff like mine, but I think I can do most specialty orders. I’m looking to get very deep into metamond creation and understanding, and that is why I am here at all.”

The woman narrowed her eyes a little, judging. “After we go through the portal, I can get you the mana chamber in 100 seconds and you can place it wherever you want, but the workshop needs to be set up, and we will need to be invited on to your property in order to do that.”

So she could just pluck the chamber from Storage? Is that what she was implying?

… She could do that?

No. She couldn’t hand him a giant fucking 3-meter-cubed metal chamber, plucked from the very air of the dungeon? Had to be some other thing.

“Sure.” Erick turned and said to Veracity and the red-haired man, “I’ll be making [Rejuvenation]s soon enough, so I’ll see you all later.” As Veracity and the guy nodded, and gave little bows to the tall woman, Erick gestured to the hills in the distance as he said to the tall woman, “Care to walk with me? To the city? I’m Ashes, but you already knew that.”

The woman walked alongside Erick. “Rebecca Fellhorn. Commander of Advancement in the Iron Bandits.”

“Nice to meet you, Rebecca. Were you waiting out here for me specifically? Or are you part of the push back against the inquisitors?”

“The Iron Bandits have a certain stance against overreach, and so we must make an appearance.” Rebecca said, “We would all prefer the inquisitors not do their jobs here, where they have no authority except that which Atunir grants them, but this is the world we live in, for now.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. “For now?”

They had reached the hills. The road split in ten different directions, where quite a few people stood, waiting. Erick could tell they wanted to exit the dungeon, but they couldn’t leave with the inquisition there, or at least they believed they could not.

Some of those people looked at Erick and Rebecca because they all knew Rebecca… And maybe one or two people knew Erick. Erick’s current opinion of Rebecca was decent, but as he saw people bow a little toward her with actual respect (and a little bit of fear) that opinion notched upward.

“Yes, ‘for now’.” Rebecca blindsided him, “We fully expect Xoat Reborn to create new worlds or something better, and a lot sooner than Yggdrasil.”

Erick felt like he had taken a step and the ground had gone missing.

He recovered fast enough, though he did let out a little sigh, and a “Uhh.”

Rebecca smiled gently. “Not one for Xoatism, eh?”

“… Not so much. No.”

Rebecca gestured to the nearest black portal. “Do you wish to lead the way?”

Erick held out his hand to Rebecca. “Sure.”

Rebecca placed her hand onto his, and lightly gripped—

Erick felt something odd at that touch, but nothing dangerous. Both Rebecca and he were veiled by mana sense Privacy magics, so he didn’t see past hers, and Erick was rather sure she couldn’t see past his, or else he wouldn’t have held her hand.

But it was strange.

To hold her hand.

Perhaps, Erick just hadn’t held a stranger’s hand in… A long time, actually.

That was probably it.

Erick led the way through the black portal, with Rebecca right there with him.

Erick stepped out of the darkness and onto a large platform, overseeing Utopia. Rebecca stepped to his side. Together, they began descending the stairs.

And Rebecca said, “I’ll start summoning the chamber, if this deal is truly happening. I can’t enforce compliance with our agreement once I hand you the cube, so if you choose to screw me over, then I will be forced to screw you over in other ways, here in Utopia.”

Erick chuckled. “I’m sure this deal is happening, but I don’t plan on being here much. I came for the magical experimentation. Not to make a new life for myself.”

Rebecca studied Erick for a moment, then she nodded. “I am making a new life for myself down here, as are many people. Please don’t treat our society as a dumping ground for bad behavior.”

Erick laughed again. “I would never do that. I do plan on dumping as many [Rejuvenation]s as people need before I move on, though. According to Kinder, you all need that sort of thing.”

“Dungeon Master Kinder is correct. Most [Rejuvenation]s come from rare loot on practically any floor past 10, but it takes between 2 to 4 to actually create an item because the creation process usually consumes at least one [Rejuvenation] in the priming process, and that’s not even counting the necessity of a skilled hand in order to take the [Rejuvenation] and attach it to the metiron.”

Erick nodded. “It took me a few to make my Breastplate of [Regenerating Health], and a few to make the Wand of [Rejuvenation], too. If necessary, I can just pop out a bunch of [Rejuvenation]s, though, and other people can experiment with them. I would need metiron to make the full bracelets myself, but I can do that too, if you desire.”

Rebecca’s small smile returned. She was pretty sure she was making a good investment. “We’ll have to hurry and get you a full setup as soon as possible.”

The staircase was empty of people, and it wasn’t until Erick had completed a full rotation around the spire that he saw why.

Erick glanced down below, then asked Rebecca, “The tower is closed off by people that appear to be a collection of companies?”

“… Shouldn’t be truly closed off.” Rebecca looked down, over the edge of the spiraling staircase. “They’re telling people that the inquisition is upstairs. Most people turn around when they hear—” She held out her hand as they walked, and the 100 second timer must have ended, because darkness swirled, and a small cube landed in her hand. She held it, saying, “This a very rare drop from the deeper floors, but we keep several around for new crafters like yourself. If you don’t mind, I would ask for as many [Rejuvenation]s as you can make in a day. 150,000 gold paid per metamond, deposited directly to your name upon receiving the metamonds.”

“Give me a specific number, please. How many do you need?”

“In that case, we’d need at least enough to make a full delve team’s worth of bracelets. That’s 15. 17, to make up for crafting failures on our end.”

“Deal.”

Rebecca handed over the cube.

And Erick [Identify]ed it.

Meta Diamond Creation Chamber, greater artifact, 10,000 mana channeled to activate.

Place this cube in the spot where it is desired, then channel 10,000 mana into the cube to begin activation. Once placed, it will lock to that physical space. It cannot be easily moved.

The [Identify] words floated backward, since Erick and Rebecca had never stopped moving down the stairs.

Rebecca spoke up, “They’re not that difficult to move. Just make yourself a [Strong Telekinesis], or ask someone else to do that for you. Once set they are impossible to move without the owner’s permission, though.”

Erick held up the cube, and said, “Storage, this cube.”

The cube vanished in darkness.

Erick and Rebecca reached the bottom of the stairs, where a loose line of warriors stood at the bottom of the staircase. Three of them were playing cards, and two of them were sitting down on the staircase itself. Others stood nearby; not physically blocking the staircase at all.

The ones playing cards rapidly noticed Rebecca, and the three of them stood and gave her a rather odd salute; a double-tap of the left fist against the right shoulder...

Erick couldn’t place that salute.

Rebecca just nodded to them, and then she stopped.

Erick stopped with her.

“You’re in the Iron Bandits, now, Ashes Woodfield. Thank you for joining up. Anything you need, you talk to one of these men here, or to our company house off the square, over there.” She pointed. “If you wish to delve, then we can get a team for you. If you wish to go it alone, you can do that, too. Do you mind if I come by your property in several hours to pick up those [Rejuvenation]s, and to start the installation of the furnaces and workshop space?”

“Sure. Sounds good.”

“Money will be deposited into your storage, as per usual, upon receiving the items. Do you know how to use that feature?”

“Kinder explained a lot of it to me. Thanks, though.”

Rebecca nodded, giving yet another small smile. “Then I will see you later, Ashes. I must return up top in case I am needed. It was nice to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you, too. Farewell.”

The woman turned around and went back up the stairs.

And Erick decided to get back to his house, taking the quick exit, with his Bracelet of [Hidden Wind].

He had chosen the quick path through allying with the Iron Bandits, which would either be a problem, or not. Erick hoped not. Veracity and the red-haired man’s offers were probably a lot lesser than Rebecca’s anyway, —or at least they believed their offers were lesser— because Veracity and the red-haired man had rapidly acquiesced to Rebecca taking point.

As Erick ran ‘home’, he replayed that meeting in his mind several times. There was something about Rebecca that was both wonderful, and yet unnerving. More unnerving than nice, Erick thought, as the golden wheat ocean waved on both sides of the road.

Perhaps it was the way Rebecca’s smile did reach her eyes, but which still seemed fake.

… Perhaps she was just worried about the inquisition. No one had been in top form up there, least of all Erick. He had been mostly furious, and now that the fury was gone, it was easy to have empathy for others once again.