Erick and Quilatalap went into the dining room.

The beginning of their date was awkward, as these things often were, but their server set them down at their reserved table in the back of the restaurant, and things flowed from there. Atalle herself came out and professionally, and happily, spoke of the foods they would be getting. She even served them their first glasses of wine, and assured them that their dinner would be amongst the best they would ever have. It would also be easy.

There would be no ordering except in the broadest of senses. A choice of chicken, beef, or fish. Rice or noodles. They could order something specific, and the Saucery could make that, if they really wanted something specific. Or they could choose Atalle’s recommended selection; a five course meal paired with twenty different sauces, from sweet and savory, to salty and nutty. Atalle recommended the five course event.

Erick picked the Cook’s Choice, and so did Quilatalap.

Atalle wished them a pleasant evening.

In the background, a good five meters away from Erick and Quilatalap’s booth, a quiet band played, as they often did here in the Saucery. The lights above were dim, and romantic. The booths were cushioned well. Other people sat at other booths a few meters away, at the closest, but mostly, Erick and Quilatalap were alone, in public.

The wine was fantastic.

Since Atalle was cooking, a different server brought out the first course.

It was a pair of salads, each perfectly divided into four portions and adorned with four different sauces, along with a dry white wine, or beer, whichever they wanted. Erick switched to beer. Quilatalap went with the wine.

Erick loved the ‘peanut’ sauce on the salad, though it wasn’t called that here on Veird. Quilatalap loved the ‘borgleber’ sauce, though it hadn’t been called that on Veird in a very long time; about 1450 years, to be vaguely exact. This meant that it had been called something else in the transition to Veird, after the Sundering.

They spoke of small things, like the nature of Cooking magic, and of the wines they had had before, and of the foods they had enjoyed in their own respective worlds. Quilatalap confided that he didn’t really remember the foods from all the way back then, but he did know of the broad sensations of ‘what they probably tasted like’, and the stuff that people had managed to recreate seemed pretty darn close to what they used to be.

The next course was rice and different meaty sauces. Erick chuckled as he tasted the sweet and savory pork, saying he had completely forgotten about Chinese food, but then that couldn’t have been right; he was probably just misremembering. Maybe he needed to make some ‘five spice fruit’, or something, to recreate those flavors of that culture. Erick wouldn’t be doing that part of Earth justice at all, but he missed those flavors, now. Quilatalap asked after what were his favorite foods back on Earth, and Erick honestly couldn’t say, but he was partial to fries and burgers and milkshakes; the simple stuff. When Erick asked Quilatalap the same question, Quilatalap spoke of how he really liked food exactly like this here; the fancy stuff that he only ever got to eat every once in a while.

“It’s only special because I only allow myself to eat like this every several years,” Quilatalap said.

And since nothing had exploded yet, Erick said, “We’ll have to come here again, then. Maybe a faster turn-around than seven years, too.”

Quilatalap smiled, blushing.

The third course was the main meal. It was perfectly cooked meats of all kinds, and another four different sauces, and a different bottle of dark red wine. The wine was the preferred drink for this course. With that guidance, Erick switched to wine, and Quilatalap switched from the white to the red. The server identified the meats as grade 10 monster beef, specifically some breed from Songli called ‘singing cow’, a grade 10 monster fish, specifically a rainbow king from Treehome, a grade 10 monster bird called an abyss drinker, from Stratagold, and finally a grade 10 monster venison, specifically a lunar stag, caught in Treehome. There were more than enough little slices of perfectly cooked meats to try them in all of the different sauces.

Erick took his first piece of lunar stag, dipped in a pepper oil sauce, brought it to his mouth, and moaned at the flavor. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. Quilatalap smiled. Erick extolled how great it was, and then Quilatalap had him try the abyss drinker in the brown sauce, and Erick had to amend himself. That bird in that sauce was now the best thing he had ever eaten.

Quilatalap smiled brightly.

Erick wanted more of this stuff every single night! How had he not come here before?! A tragedy!

Quilatalap chuckled.

But eventually, the main course was done. Quilatalap and Erick had cleaned it up. Quilatalap, because the guy was an orcol and he could pack away the food if he wanted, and he very much wanted. Erick, because he hadn’t eaten in his dragon form in a while, which he probably should have kept on top of, but he was busy.

Atalle came out then, and asked if they were enjoying themselves.

Erick was, and he said as much. Quilatalap just nodded, opting to remain silent. Erick asked if Atalle was having trouble getting ingredients at all, and if she needed help; Erick wanted to ensure that she got everything she wanted, so she could continue to cook like this for as long as she wished.

With a happy expression, and a slight mist in her eyes, Atalle bowed, saying, “It’s all been rather great, Wizard Flatt. There’s nothing more I could ask for, except to be allowed to continue what I’m already doing. Though, if the Gates opened to Songli, I could get a lot more beef like this, a lot easier.”

Erick smiled, saying, “If you’ve got connections with the Cooking Guild to put pressure on the Highlands to accept the Gate Network, then go ahead and pressure them. I want that part of the Network up and operational, too, but I’m already doing all I can with the High Clans.”

Atalle rose with a happy expression. “I have some strings I can pull. I’ll see what I can do.”

Erick nodded.

Atalle went back to the kitchen, and then the server came out with the fourth course; the other main course. Tempura-like fried vegetables, roasted vegetables, grilled vegetables; alongside a whole platter of all the sauces that the server had seen that Erick and Quilatalap had enjoyed the most, and in large quantities. Erick absolutely demolished the not-peanut sauce, some sort of cheese sauce, and a thick almost-teriyaki sauce. Quilatalap went for his borgleber sauce, the spicy oil sauce, and a pesto-like sauce. They shared the brown sauce and the purple tomato sauce, as they talked of books in Quilatalap’s library, and of some basic technologies that Erick wanted to proliferate on Veird, like electricity.

They laughed at small jokes and talked of small magics. They drank and they smiled. Other people in the restaurant came and went as the two of them probably spent about an hour just talking and eating, because both of them were happy, and neither wanted it to end. There was still another course to go, though.

Eventually, they finished all the sauces and all the vegetables, each of which had been replaced a few times, for both men found themselves wonderfully entertained by each other, and by the food.

Atalle came out, herself, with two cakes, one brown, the other white, and with a bottle of silverberry wine that shimmered inside its green bottle. She explained that the white cake was the normal cake for dessert; a simple butter cake. But the brown cake was chocolate. She was still experimenting with how best to use this flavor, and though it was still in the experimental stage, she wished to know if Erick approved. And then she popped the cork on the silverberry wine and poured a glass for Erick, and a glass for Quilatalap, as another server cut open the cakes and portioned them out. And then Atalle left them to it.

Erick had to try the chocolate cake first, and so he did. It was probably the best chocolate cake Erick had ever eaten. Quilatalap agreed, and then joked that of course it was the best chocolate cake he had ever eaten, because it was the only chocolate cake he had ever eaten. The butter cake was probably still better, though, because that was a recipe that Atalle had perfected 70 years ago. Both cakes went well with the silverberry wine, too, which had an almost magical quality to the taste. A lunar quality, actually, which had been shared with the lunar deer, now that Erick had a moment to recognize that flavor.

“It’s the taste of a certain sort of peace. The peace of the afterlife, of knowing it’ll all turn out fine. Of the moons, and of the Silver Star in particular.” Quilatalap smirked, setting down his glass a little to say, “Koyabez has a special connection with that particular wine. A little bit of divine fire to make it taste that much better. Some would call it the taste of Peace Itself.”

“… Huh?” Erick looked to his half-full glass, saying, “Peace tastes pretty good.”

Quilatalap chuckled. “That it does.”

“How was religion in the Old Cosmology—” Erick amended himself, “How was your religion?”

Quilatalap laughed, smiling brighter. “Now there’s a conversation.”

“Go on then! Teach me,” Erick said, for the third time this evening.

Quilatalap’s soul flexed, his teeth seeming to sharpen on the edges of his body, and then he began, “I was anointed as a Holy Necromancer of Koyabez at the early age of 75, which was very, very old for an orc back then. 60 was old for an orc, back then. I was also quite a lot shorter. Veird was also a lot smaller, but it still had a Script-like thing hanging around it. Rozeta maintained that proto-Script along with a similar protective space around several other worlds, but it was here, on Veird, that she was most active, though she wouldn’t become a goddess for another almost 1,600 years. Melemizargo was the God of Magic back then, and well into his eighth millennia of duty. Phagar was ancient and powerful; far more ancient and more powerful than almost all the other gods. Koyabez was marginally strong, but it was here on Veird that Koyabez was the strongest, for this was Koyabez’s homeworld.

“Koyabez and Melemizargo used to be great friends, though when they met, Melemizargo started off as the new-god on the scene, while Koyabez was rather old-hand at this godly thing.

“Phagar, Melemizargo, and Koyabez, were my gods of choice back then, and they remain my gods of choice.

“They’re all much, much smaller than they used to be, for what they used to be were the maintainers of the Old Cosmology. Wizards went out and did a lot to expand the universe, yes, but it’s hard to say who did more to actually help the common person. In the daily, people talked to gods; prayed and worshiped in houses of the divine, and were similarly answered in those houses. No one ever talked to Wizards directly, except for those who were very special, or who positioned themselves next to Wizards through luck, courage, or stupidity.

“But anyway.

“I was an orc who saw death, and hated it. I was a warrior who saw war, and knew it for evil. I was a caster who saw magic and knew it for a way forward, to power, and to gaining the ability to change my fate… Ahh. But… I think I’d like to have that conversation in private.”

Erick perked up. He looked around—

Oh.

People were listening.

They had been listening anyway, but…

“It’s getting late, I suppose. Let’s go elsewhere?”

Quilatalap smiled and nodded.

Erick signaled to the server.

Soon, Atalle was back, asking how the dinner was. Erick told her the truth; that it was absolutely wonderful, and that he would be back again. To forestall Atalle telling him that the meal was going to be free, because Erick had already mana sensed that conversation happening between her and other servers, Erick told her that he was paying the full price for the meal.

Atalle paled. “Sir. It’s free. I cannot accept your money—”

“I’m still paying. So by my calculations and looking at the menu, the cost is 8,900 gold? How about I make it an even 10,000?”

Atalle’s eyes went wide. “… Uh. If you think that is best, sir.”

“I do. Send the bill to Zolan and we’ll get it sorted. It was a lovely meal, Atalle. Thanks for coming to House Benevolence. I think I have offered this to you already, but if any of your Cooking Guild friends want to come and get a [Reincarnation], you can tell them they’re welcome to partake of that. I’ll probably be doing at least 10 of those per day starting on the Triumph of Light. Probably more like 50, actually. A little celebration for the world. Those people won’t have to work here after that; they can go wherever they want.” Erick smiled. “But I want you to stay here as long as you want. It was truly a great meal, Atalle.”

Atalle’s eyes misted up again. She bowed, then rose and stepped away, her throat too tight for her to do anything more than whisper, “Thank you.”

Erick held a hand out to Quilatalap. “Short cut?”

Quilatalap grabbed the rest of the bottle of silver wine and the two cakes in a telekinetic grip, then he put his hand on Erick’s. “Short cut.”

And then they left.

- - - -

Briefly, they reappeared in front of Quilatalap’s library, but then Quilatalap suggested somewhere else, and Erick, blushing, obliged. They reappeared in the house Erick had made for Quilatalap days ago.

The kitchen was attached to the dining room and next to the living room and the front door to the cottage. A few rooms of various sizes and accommodations were set to the side of all that, down a short hallway. It was a single story [Fairy Stronghold] cottage on Yggdrasil’s boughs, and it was perfectly sized for Quilatalap, and maybe two guests, if he wanted guests.

Quilatalap flickered with magic, rapidly sending the cakes into the cold storage boxes and conjuring some gold-fire flickering spellwork. The gold spell was a [Ward] of some extraordinarily Divine sort, wherein he [Duplicate]d the bottle of silverberry wine. Before Erick could even widen his eyes at that casual display of divine and magical power, and at the reveal of [Duplicate], Quilatalap poured two large glasses for the two of them and then suddenly handed a full glass to Erick. The silver wine glowed with visible golden fire—

Quilatalap was nude. Completely. Erick’s heart thumped hard.

Quilatalap asked, “You want this, right? Because I certainly do.”

With a flicker of power, Erick was nude, too. “I want this. Quite a lot.”

Quilatalap smiled brightly and downed his drink. Erick did the same. The wine tasted divine, which made a whole lot of sense, actually.

Quilatalap asked something about taking their time. Erick agreed.

Strong magic surrounded the entire cottage.

The world slowed down.

- - - -

A long time passed in a single hour.

Most of it was simple talking about nothing that important, and yet oh so wonderful; foods, people, places, history.

Some of it was spent enjoying a meal together that Erick or Quilatalap had cooked.

The rest was a vacation for Erick, in the best possible way, with a person he didn’t know that he liked so much until here, and now.

- - - -

Erick relaxed on his chair, sighing out, “That was a great dinner! You cook so well, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap smiled, blushing a bit as he sat across from Erick. He still had a bit of bacon left on his plate. “It’s nice to cook for someone. I usually don’t even eat.”

“Ha! What?” Erick asked, “What do you mean— Like. You have an organic body, yeah? That means you need to eat?”

“I do. I also have [Create Food and Water], and [Duplicate], and I’m surprised you haven’t asked me about either yet. I’ve used both of them rather openly in the last day, or whatever—”

“I think it’s been over a day.”

Quilatalap nodded. “But I suppose you must already have both of those?”

Erick smiled brightly. “I don’t have both of them.”

Quilatalap grinned. “Let me guess! [Duplicate]!”

Erick shrugged. “I might have promised never to reveal certain things, and so I will likely not answer that question—”

“Say no more, say no more. You’re a heck of a lot better at that than I am. Look at me! I met a nice guy and I’m already spilling out secrets all over the place.”

Erick grinned. “So what is it? Like an internal blessing that ensures you never run out of food?”

Quilatalap laughed. “Almost! But actually the exact opposite of a blessing. [Curse of Sustenance]. No need to eat at all. Ever.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “A curse?”

“It was cast on me by a Wizard who had captured me once in the year… 150ish. Something like that. Like really captured me. Couldn’t get away at all except through death, and I was desperately trying to kill myself to make that happen. One of the ways I was trying to escape was through overcharging my metabolism and causing me to starve to death. So he cursed me with a Sustenance effect. It makes maintaining a healthy, physical body truly easy. But death through starvation? Not happening.”

Erick blinked a bit. “… Wow.”

Quilatalap waved a hand. “I’ve modified the curse into more of a blessing since then and kept repeating that magic on myself every time my body is killed. It’s very useful! Easy to switch into an automatic-suicide spell, too— Ah. Hmm. That upsets you.”

“Well... Yes. I’m… I’m sorry that all happened to you, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap smiled softly. “Don’t worry about it. Feel free to change the subject, too.”

“… Uh. Okay— Oh! 150 years was before the Fall of Quintlan, when [Create Food and Water] was widespread. I know why that was Restricted; because Atunir was about to turn Dark, whatever that means. I can guess why [Duplicate] was restricted, too, but [Duplicate] is still widely used in the world by all the powerhouses, and none of the common people. So why not give [Duplicate] to everyone? Was there a problem with [Duplicate], too?”

Quilatalap nodded, then began, “Let’s start with the root causes of the Fall of Quintlan. Everyone knows about the widespread use of [Create Food and Water] causing nobility to ascend to a higher lifestyle and the common people to subsist on gruel. This caused a widespread inequality which eventually led to widespread war. But! What most people don’t know is that the problem with [Create Food and Water] was a lot more than Atunir turning Dark, to her beginning to believe Melemizargo that this world was a cage that should be destroyed.

“[Create Food and Water] allowed for Sustenance effects, which is what happened to me.

“But the truly insidious thing was when people started blessing monsters with Sustenance. It got real bad when they started doing that to oozes.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “That sounds bad.”

Quilatalap nodded. “Yup. Now that was bad. Every single Sustenance Ooze was both ravenously hungry, and full; willing to eat everything in sight, but also constantly splitting off smaller oozes that went on to do even more damage. That was what killed Quintlan. And not right away, either. In the beginning of that tactic in like, the year 300, or something like that, a Sustenance Ooze could only go through about 50 splits before the constant splitting caused a degradation of that blessing.

“It was only in the very last decade of Quintlan that someone managed to make a Sustenance Ooze that could last indefinitely; that needed to be killed to end that threat.”

Erick pondered that for a moment. “I suppose you could do the same thing with [Duplicate]?”

“That’s still doable, but it’s a lot harder. That’s not why [Duplicate] is restricted, though. Widespread [Duplicate] is the breakdown of society as a whole, since no one ever needs to interact with anyone else ever again.” Quilatalap said, “And when that happens, we get an ‘all the gods turn Dark’ problem— Well. Most of them. Not all of them. Phagar, Rozeta, Koyabez, Melemizargo… They would all be fine. Atunir would probably turn Dark in a bad way— Colloquially that’s called ‘turning Dark’, because Melemizargo was the Dark and also insane for a long time, but it’s not really ‘turning Dark’ at all; it’s more ‘turning insane’. Though that might be more a question for the philosophers than for me.

“In the advent of widespread [Duplicate], Sininindi would turn Dark, since no one would care about the ocean or storms; they could hunker down on land and never see the ocean at all if they wanted. Same for Fangorl, god of the wilds, and Zephyr, god of travels. Bunch of minor gods, too.” Quilatalap added, “Not sure about Sumtir, the god of righteous war. Could go either way. Maybe the only wars ever fought again would be over ideology and land… or something. Never did agree with Sumtir. There’s no such thing as a righteous war.”

Huh.

Well all that was a lot to think about.

Erick put that train of thought on hold for another day, though.

“Sumtir was the ‘god of war’ before the Sundering, right? Not just ‘righteous war’?” Erick said, “Seems rather diametrically opposed to Koyabez, the god of peace. How did he managed to make it onto Veird after the Sundering?”

“Koyabez banned him from entering Veird during the Sundering, telling Sumtir that he wasn’t welcome. Rozeta popped up and told Koyabez that Sumtir’s power was absolutely necessary for their survival, if Sumtir was willing to give up at least 75% of himself. Koyabez relented, allowing that to happen. And so Sumtir sacrificed a lot of his power, dedicating that power to the manaminer that would become the Script, in an effort to be let inside.” Quilatalap said, “Sumtir went from a major, universe-wide god, to what he is today. Still rather powerful, but… They’re all a lot less than they used to be.”

“… Huh.”

Quilatalap changed the subject, “So you’re hosting the Feast this year, yeah?”

Erick leaned back in his chair, suddenly groaning as the weight of responsibility reasserted itself. And then he turned back to Quilatalap. “Let’s leave that topic for after.” He stood up. He was still nude. “I do want to talk about the Feast with you, at length. But… Later.”

Quilatalap smiled wide as he stood up, also fully nude, knowingly asking, “What else do you want to do then, Erick?”

“I’m sure we can think of something.”

- - - -

Zolan shouted, “Another!” as he cracked open a third bottle of high-alcohol liquor. He took a swig directly from the thing, the harsh liquid burning his throat. And then he passed the bottle along.

Mox took the offered drink. Three glugs later, she passed the bottle along, saying, “Holy fuck I might need something stronger, Zolan.”

Raingorl downed half the bottle in four long gulps, then passed it along, saying, “I can get stronger stuff.”

Volaro shook his head at the offered bottle, saying, “I’ve had enough. I have an important case in the morning.”

Burhendurur took the bottle instead, saying, “Nothing is going to get done tomorrow, Volaro.” He took two long sips, and then passed it to the next person.

Aisha took a sip, and then set the bottle on the table in front of the other overseers of House Benevolence. “I think this romance of Erick’s will be fine.”

Grumbles filled the room. It was just the six of them in this private space.

Discovering that Erick was on a date with Quilatalap had been a disaster of massive proportions, but no one had threatened war yet, so it might be fine. As for the overseers, none of them had known about this until then. Every single one of them only found out how deep Erick’s connection with the ARCHLICH OF NECROMANCY…

Zolan sighed.

Zolan was still having trouble with this. Everyone of them and a few others knew about Quilatalap being here at the House. Neither Erick or Quilatalap had been completely secretive about that fact. Burhendurur even had a guy in custody right now because Quilatalap’s skeleton golem defender had dropped the guy off at Enforcement. But then there was the date. The Wizard Dragon of Benevolence and the Archlich of Necromancy had been at Atalle’s Saucery for the last few hours, publicly enjoying a full 5-course meal, the deep hospitality of Atalle, and the easy company of each other.

Burhendurur started giggling again— He shook his head hard, trying to get rid of that uncouth emotional response. He grabbed the bottle again and drained it, then said to Raingorl, “What else you got?”

Raingorl laughed. “I lied. I got kegs. You want a keg?”

“I want a keg,” Volaro said. “Recovering from a kegger is easy.”

Burhendurur chuckled again.

“But you were done? You have a case in the morning?” Mox asked.

“Changed my mind,” Volaro asked, “Where’s the keg?”

Raingorl got up, saying, “Hold on hold—”

He vanished in a bit of pale light.

Zolan joked, “Wonder if he fell down after leaving.”

Mox said, “If I stood I would fall—”

Raingorl reappeared, holding two great big kegs, one under each arm, looking like a teenager Arcanaeum student at his first real taste of freedom from Treehome, being out on his own. “I got beer— Whoops!”

One of the kegs slipped, but Volaro caught it with magic, and then brought it over to himself. With an expert tapping that would be the envy of any graduate, the orcol-shaped dragon slammed a conjured tap into the top of the barrel and magically lifted it up, conjuring big mugs and then pouring drinks. He handed one to Raingorl who started waterfalling the beer, and then one to Mox and Zolan, and then Burhendurur and Aisha. After refilling Raingorl’s drink again, Volaro sniffed his own mug, and then waterfalled it all down, putting Raingorl to sudden shame.

A sudden bout of orcol competitiveness flashed between Volaro and Raingorl. It was drinking time. Zolan tried to keep up but failed miserably, while Raingorl crashed onto his seat and conceded the win to Volaro.

And Aisha said, “Volaro only won because he’s a cheating dragon who cheats.”

“He didn’t drink nearly enough of the good stuff!” Mox loudly proclaimed.

Burnehdurur brought the conversation back around to the current predicament, saying, “They’ve been at Quilatalap’s house that Erick built for the last 2 hours. The entire place is still under that Time spell. Holy gods. Is everything going to change once they come out of there?”

Aisha [Decay Rain]ed on Burhendurur’s everything, “You still can’t talk to Quilatalap.”

“What! Why not!” Burhendurur demanded.

Volaro laid it out, “If they come out of there dating, then you moving on Quilatalap is a terrible breach of conduct— I amend my statement: You talking to Quilatalap at all will now require oversight by Erick at all times. If they come out of there angry at each other, then Quilatalap is gone. If they come out of there amicably quits, then you might be able to make a move.”

Burhendurur’s face went red. “I don’t want to date Quilatalap!”

Zolan, Mox, Raingorl, and Volaro paused.

Aisha briefly paused, then she rolled her eyes. “You want all his magical knowledge.”

“Yes! And I want to be friends with him!” Burhendurur said, “He INVENTED NECROMANCY. The best school of magic ever!”

“Debatable.” “False.” “What! No.” “Book Magic is better.”

Aisha said, “Rozeta above, if anyone would have ever told me if I would be talking with a friendly Death Dragon coworker about the nature of his infatuation with Quilatalap, The Archlich, who looks to also be a coworker, I would have called them crazy.”

“Oh yes.” Zolan said, “It’s even crazier that this is all actually working, too.”

Mox gasped—

Everyone looked to her.

Suddenly wide eyed and looking around the room, Mox asked, “Is Goldie here?”

“Yeah I’m here,” Goldie said, sipping her beer and sitting on the extra chair around the table, like she had always been there. “Quilatalap is a good guy. Erick is a good guy. They’re good together, right?”

Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps it was the knowledge that Goldie had had ample opportunity to do some bad shit and she had not done any bad shit, or perhaps it was because Zolan saw this as an excellent chance to talk with a Shade (for he would be talking with a lot of them at the Feast)—

Anyway, Zolan, out of everyone else in the room, was the only one to speak next, asking, “Is this going to actually work between them? Or is this doomed to failure?”

Goldie easily said, “They’re magically, physically, and emotionally compatible. They worship— Well. Quilatalap worships Koyabez, Phagar, and My God Melemizargo. Erick is friendly with Koyabez, Phagar, and The False Goddess Rozeta. There’s a lot of… You know. Overlap, or some shit.”

Everyone considered this.

Zolan considered it all a great deal faster, though, and so he could ask, “Got any idea about the Feast?”

“All I really know is that a bunch of plans just changed.” Goldie frowned. “I was going to ask Erick to dance with me.” She waterfalled her beer, then held out the cup to Volaro.

Volaro filled the mug, then handed it back to Goldie.

Goldie vanished.

Raingorl asked, “What are we going to do about the Feast?”

The conversation restarted, and with gusto.

Somewhere in the middle of talk of food service and a concern over Erick’s Time Magic disrupting all the other magic already active inside the House (all duration-effects inside the House would pass on as normal, according to Goldie), a telepathic call came to Zolan.

The Headmaster asked, ‘When were you going to tell me that Erick and Quilatalap were dating?’

‘… The entire House just found out.’ Zolan sent, ‘On the positive side, there’s no need to worry over Erick’s significant other being a physical liability.’

‘… Just an emotional liability, a security threat, and a danger to the world about as large as a rogue Wizard.’

‘Then it’s a good thing he’s paired with a known Wizard, sir.’

‘Let your boss know I will be having some words with him when he deigns to reappear.’

‘I will schedule you for noon tomorrow. We have a slot open then.’ Zolan added, ‘Unless someone declares war on us over this.’

‘… Very well.’

The connection cut.

Zolan went back to drinking but he focused again as the conversation turned to that dragon that Burhendurur had in custody. ‘Crem’; the Benevolence dragon who murdered a guy and then waited for Enforcement to show. Aisha got a painful look as Volaro spoke of law and precedent and what any sort of decision would mean for the future.

The night dragged on, full of worry. Midnight eventually rolled around—

Burhendurur’s face shot up. He spilled beer everywhere. “He’s back.”

[Cleanse] and Healing Magic were wonderful for avoiding all the problems of alcohol poisoning and hangovers. Now House Benevolence simply needed to not get murdered by all of Quilatalap’s enemies.

Mox admonished Zolan, “It’s not as dire as you suggest, Zolan. It’s just… Different.”

Zolan counted out on his fingers as he said, “The Dragon Stalkers hate Erick, and Quilatalap for their parts in making dragons—” Burhendurur and Volaro scoffed. Zolan continued, “—the Sovereign Cities hate Erick for allowing Gambler’s Rest to happen. I have absolutely no idea how this Feast thing is going to work out. And don’t forget that Converter Angel; it’s still out there.”

Mox said, “In this specific case, the Stalkers are all wind and no lightning. The Sovereign Cities might be stupid, but then we have Aisha and Benevolence to help counter those smaller acts of stupidity. The Angels and Demons are staying far away… But the Feast could be a problem.”

Aisha said, “We’re going to end up with all the Shades here. I can already see it happening, and that’s only partially paranoia; the rest is all True Sight.”

- - - -

Erick walked into his house at midnight, smiling brightly, even though Kiri, Poi, and Teressa were all still awake and in the kitchen. He walked right into that dour room, saying, “Hello, everyone!”

Poi announced, “He’s still Erick.”

Kiri sighed in relief.

Teressa said, “I told you nothing bad was going to happen.”

“And I didn’t believe you,” Kiri said, matter-of-factly. Then she got up, walked over to Erick, and gave him a quick hug, saying, “I’m very glad you’re okay.”

Erick smiled wide as he hugged her back, and then let her go. “I had a 2 day vacation in a matter of hours. It was wonderful. Also, Quilatalap and I are dating unless the world lights on fire due to this, which it might.”

“Yeah…” Kiri said, “I have Sunny on lookout. Haven’t seen much of anything dangerous happening and we’re still under a [Zone of Peace], but then again there’s a lot more to look at these days and I’m not nearly as proficient at that as you are. Your overseers are concerned, though. Like… A lot.”

Erick nodded. “I know. I saw them all at a meeting, talking about this latest development. Which was to be expected, I suppose. I’m trying to look on the bright side that they were able to do that all on their own, without me being involved at all, and without their meeting devolving into a shouting match.”

Kiri asked, “They got over that impetus to anger weeks ago, though?”

“Ehhh… Mostly. Yeah,” Erick agreed.

Teressa stood up, happily saying, “Well anyway! Congrats, Boss. We orcols have horror and heroic stories about him aplenty. I could tell you some, sometime.”

“I will absolutely hear those stories. Now? Or tomorrow?”

Teressa smiled a little. “Tomorrow. It’s too late for me to be up any longer. Glad you finally got a vacation, though.”

Erick smiled brightly, again. It was as though he had grabbed onto another anchor in his life, a touchstone. It was a small touchstone right now, for he didn’t really know Quilatalap all that well, but what he did know, he liked. A lot.

“I’m glad I got a vacation, too.”

Kiri said, “Congrats. I’m off to bed.” She walked out of the kitchen, saying, “See you in the morning.”

“Time to sleep,” Teressa said, also heading out.

And then it was Poi and Erick.

Erick sat down at the kitchen table, next to Poi. With a solemn tone, for that’s what this seemed to need, Erick said, “I see your sister is still asleep.”

“… Yeah. She is. It’s…” Poi looked at him. “I wish to request some formal time off. For a few days, and then back to working for the days of the Feast, and if nothing happens then some time off during the Triumph… Or later.”

“Of course, Poi! Anything you need.” Erick said, “Maybe I could even hire Rizala as a personal guard like—”

“No. Don’t do that.” Poi said, “I’m not even sure who she is. Like. Yes. She is my sister, but I don’t actually know her. I haven’t seen her in a… A long time.”

“The best way to get to know someone is to spend some time with them.”

“… I don’t want your safety to be in the hands of an unknown Mind Mage.”

“I take it she wasn’t part of the collective— The Crossing, I mean? That she was truly out on her own?”

“There are certain ways to be magically invisible and the Shades know them all. Your broken fae necklace was one such method.”

Erick went with the change of subject. “Burhendurur and Aisha and I have gone over a lot of them in our Benevolence tests. Apparently Benevolence is very good at circumventing most of those methods because Benevolence doesn’t do direct tracking, but world-change tracking.” And then he got back on topic. “I would have thought that Mind Mages would have had a rather similar way for them to track each other.”

“There’s always a way to hide, and the best way to hide as a Mind Mage is to only do internal magics. Rizala doesn’t know the exact methods they used to hide her because they forced her to purge her own memories, but… She does know all the usual ways. I’m sure the Shades have even better methods.” Poi said, “Some sort of ‘Absolute Unknowability’ is one such theory of the Sundering, because someone should know something about what really happened, but no one does.”

Erick asked, “Do you want a few days with Rizala? Uninterrupted? A few days in a [Hasted Shelter]? I can make that happen right now.”

Poi shook his head. “No. No need for that… Quilatalap is going to be dangerous, but… He’s one of the few people I don’t have to worry about being used against you. I’m not sure if the pros outweigh the cons, but in at least that one way… I’m glad.”

Erick smiled. “I know. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

A fraction of Poi’s worries vanished as he sighed a little, and grinned a little. “I’m happy for you.”

“And I’m happy for you, too, Poi!” Erick stood up. “Your sister is alive and well! This is a good thing!”

Poi stood up, chuckling. “I mean… yeah.” He shrugged, standing up. “Yeah. It is a good thing.”

“So many good things are happening for us! And to us!”

Poi smiled softly. “I’m headed back to Rizala’s, to sleep there. See you in the morning, Erick.”

Erick nodded. “Good night, Poi.”

Poi vanished in a flicker of blue light.

And since Erick was fully rested and he wanted to work, he went to his workshop to try his hand at making Gate Version 5.

- - - -

Keeping the Gate Network intact hadn’t been much of a problem, but there had been issues here and there that had required Erick to act fast to repair damage. Three times now, once at Portal, once at Stratagold, and once at Weald, the other side of the Gate had failed because someone had failed to upkeep the mana costs to maintain the Gate. Portal's excuse for one of their Gates flickering and failing was the same as Stratagold’s; two of the Gates were too close together, so the mana they thought they were spending evenly, was in fact being spread unevenly. This was perhaps Erick’s fault, in his opinion.

At Weald, the problem had been one of mismanagement, with the people in charge over there failing to know that they needed to upkeep the Gate. This was a much larger problem of ‘who is in charge’, but Erick and Zolan felt that this issue was rather minor compared to other problems of Weald being basically a refugee camp.

Erick checked on all of his Gates after that minor fiasco. The Gate to the top of the Forest of Glaquin, that the people of ArCosmos had been using to come into the Greater Candlepoint Area, had been running low. The others were rather fine.

It still meant that the Gates needed an upgrade, and so, because of Erick’s new [Node of the Renewing Undertow] and all the smaller problems that had cropped up, that is what Erick was working on right now.

In many ways, Version 5 was a simple upgrade, changing how each individual Gate used two [Gate]s instead of a single [Gate], with the main [Gate] unchanged, but with the second [Gate] being much smaller, and completely internal. Through a [Node of the Renewing Undertow] that would go through that smaller [Gate], and connect both sides of the big Gate, that power would keep both runic webs on both sides fully powered. When the system was connected to a [Node of the Renewing Undertow], that Node could connect to other Nodes, and to other Gates in the Gate Network.

The hardest part of the change was in emplacing a pair of limiters on how much power an individual Gate could suck up, and be drained of. Erick had never worked much with that sort of thing, but limiting the mana a runic web could hold, and ensuring the runic web would always have some mana inside of itself, was a rather normal thing to do, since the more variance of mana there was in an imperfect web, the faster it degraded. It was even worse with iron webs, for if they degraded fully then they would degrade in parts, the anti-rust magics failing and leaving pitted, red metal in their wake.

Erick had simply never made an imperfect web before, because it was easy to make a ‘perfect web’ out of platinum, and if the iron webs were anything less than perfect, then they would rot into rust in a matter of moments. It took a bit of work to adjust his designs. Not too much, though.

As the sun rose on Erick’s part of the world, he had finished the first set of new Gates; 10 of them, for now. It was enough to replace every Gate on the Financial Road, which is what he would be doing later.

Gate Version 5 looked exactly the same as the other Gates; a runic web fully contained inside a square of white Yggdrasil wood. It did not look any more impressive than all the other Gates, but in a lot of other ways, it was much more advanced.

With this, Erick could [Renew] the entire Gate Network from a single Node.

Version 5 was ready for launch.

- - - -

Erick rolled into the House in the morning and had a somewhat tense meeting with Zolan, who confronted Erick about the whole ‘Quilatalap situation’. But after some small words of ‘I know about how much danger this is; keep a watch out for me, will you?’ Zolan seemed to understand that yes, Erick fully understood what he was doing.

Mostly.

Zolan finally said, “Well he’s an enemy of Oceanside, the nations of Nelboor, a good hundred nations that are gone from the world due to transition into other nations or outright death, and then there’s all the churches. Sumtir, Aloethag, and Atunir are the big ones— Ah! The smaller city states of Spur, Frontier, Kal’Duresh— Most nations of Glaquin, actually. An avowed enemy of Treehome as well. Every single Geode. Every single major Underworld nation attached to any of the Geodes.” He added, “Also, the Headmaster wishes to have words with you at your noon meeting.”

“… That’s a longer list than I had considered... That’s the same list of people who hate Wizards, isn’t it?”

“Well… There’s some overlap, yes, but no. The cultures that hate Quilatalap hate him for reasons adjacent to putting forth magic into the world that could kill everyone, but instead of unbridled and unknowable Wizardry, those hates are focused on known Necromancy— Ah! I forgot the Angels and Demons. Those are Quilatalap’s biggest enemies, perhaps. If any demonic or angelic force tries to touch him, the archlich will rip those angels or demons off their moons and End them.”

“… I’m not hearing a downside with that last part.”

Zolan nodded. “That part is, perhaps, the singular way in which Oceanside does not disapprove of Quilatalap.”

Erick shook his head, then gave his final decision on the matter, “For now, based on a mutual camaraderie, Quilatalap is an ally of House Benevolence.”

“Understood.” Zolan asked, “Will you be upgrading the Network today?”

Erick smiled again. “Yes! All of Financial Road, first. Spur is the only one on that road that I need to actually ask to replace their Gate, so do inform and ask Spur about that first. I should be able to make enough Gates to replace all the other ones in the network in a matter of days. You can take some more time informing Portal, the Wayfarer’s, and Stratagold; Spur comes first.”

Zolan got to it.

- - - -

Erick ended up upsetting a lot of people, but it had nothing to do with the new Gates.

Silverite personally thanked Erick for upgrading their Gate, and all without charging them for the upgrade. That had been a fun little conversation, where Silverite asked after some rumors she had heard about ‘a certain date’, and which Erick deflected, asking if he could talk to her about all that later. Silverite agreed.

She didn’t seem angry, but it was hard to tell, exactly. Either way, Erick had managed to deflect that conversation and Silverite was willing to let it be deflected, which was great.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, there were new lights and lines of light in the airspace of the Gate District. It was as though Erick had drawn the first few threads of a giant spiderweb across the air above the Financial Road, with each Gate getting at least three connections to the Web. Erick was not actually happy with the design at the end of the day, but it was something he could change.

And so, on a whim, he posted an art contest on a pedestal in the food court of the House, along with a dreamcatcher-like arrangement of Nodes in the air above that contest, explaining and showing what his new magic could really look like. Multiple goals coincided in that action. The first was to inform people of what the new magic in the sky was, while the second was to invite artists to come up with a better arrangement. On another whim, the prize was 10,000 gold, or a [Reincarnation] and 10,000 gold; artist’s choice.

He hadn’t done nearly enough [Reincarnation]s in the last few days.

Erick had no doubt that someone would come up with a better style for this Node Network than his own ‘basic utility look’.

Once that was done, and after Erick had gotten several hundred inquiries about what-the-fuck was he doing with Quilatalap, from every single faction which Zolan had already listed and more, Erick decided to sit down with the faction which Erick most felt safe with.

- - - -

In a nice office in House Benevolence, Silverite sat across from Erick. This time Privacys had gone up, and then polite words had been exchanged, as well as the setting out of teas and cakes, and some quicksilver for Silverite, if she wanted any. Silverite stuck to the berry soda, though, commenting on how it was rather delicious, and wondering how it was made.

Erick handed her the spell for [Harmless Frozen Particles], saying, “It’s made with this spell, which takes one carbon and two oxygen and turns that into a frozen solid, using Elemental Mystical to bypass the creation of accidental toxins. Then that ice-like frozen air is put into a keg of berry tea, which is a combination of lemons and various berries. As the solid turns to gas, bypassing the liquid stage entirely, it increases the pressure in the keg, so that carbon dioxide seeps into the drink, creating the fizzy water.”

Silverite looked at her drink again then sipped it again before putting it down. “The same ‘carbon-two-oxygen’ that the daydroppers created? The dead air?”

“Exactly the same as people breathe out whenever they exhale, and the same that the daydroppers did; yes.”

“I do seem to recall you telling me about all that once. I must have forgotten.” Silverite looked to Erick. “Have you forgotten my own words on Quilatalap?”

Erick leaned back in his chair, recalling those words, and then he said most of them, “ ‘Quilatalap is one of the very few good necromancers. After many years of reparations and then settling into Ar’Kendrithyst well before my time, Quilatalap regained his title as the Most Holy Necromancer of Koyabez’s Peacekeepers. That is why I give him the Black Star whenever it comes my way, for that is my duty under Koyabez. But that man has an inevitable desire to teach, and those he teaches are not who anyone should accept as students. That man’s view of life, and thus the perspective of his students, is much too fluid. It is here that he and I have always had our major disagreements.

“ ‘About half the time, Quilatalap’s students always end up viewing life as something less than holy. Almost every dangerous necromancer to ever threaten this city or any other place in this world has had a connection to Quilatalap, and yes, that includes Messalina. I thought she was one of the good ones, too, but almost every single one of those misguided students of his that show up in Spur, causing trouble, I kill, myself. But, as always, it appears that Quilatalap is still useful to My God. Quilatalap helped you learn how to make that Silver Prism, and that means a lot, Erick. It means a lot, but not everything.

“ ‘So I will give you some advice, and I hope you will take it: Do not seek the archlich. Don’t talk about him to whoever might come after today. I could do without that man in my life for a while. We all could.’ ” Erick stopped reciting, then looked to Silverite. “I think that was everything.”

For a few long moments Silverite stared, and then she blinked and said, “It appears you do remember what I said… Rather solidly, as well.”

“I’ve gone over it several times since meeting with Quilatalap again. I even asked him what he had to say about you, and it was all positive words, mostly in the form of ‘I’m glad she’s there; she does a lot of cleanup that I cannot do. I’m not comfortable with killing people at all.’.”

Silverite slowly nodded. “He is comfortable with cursing people with bodies that fall apart, and blowing people up and then putting them back into a body, and eviscerating them over pits of lava, and doing all sorts of horrible things… And then he puts them back together. The trauma remains.” She added, “And there’s the whole ‘teaching other people to bring people back from the dead and thus transforming them into monsters’ thing. His magic has destroyed more souls on this world than any other magic in existence.” Silverite sighed a little. “And yet, how other people use the magic he had put out there is not his fault. And yet! He’s also saved countless lives through the dissemination of those magics.

“I simply wish he would stop teaching… Anyone at all, really. Just stop. And yet he can’t. He sees a lack of knowledge and he must fill that lack.” She asked, “Do you know that most people who went into the Armory, did so specifically to talk to Quilatalap? That he would try not to talk to people; try not to give out magical answers? But yet, the answers would come.

“Here’s one tactic that works way too well on him:

“A pair of adventurers under his purview would begin talking about Soul Magic, and they would get a lot of the initial stuff correct. Maybe they’d talk about the differences between blessings and curses. This would intrigue Quilatalap. But then, over the course of a week-long Armory trial, they’d bring up the topic again, and this time they’d purposefully get it wrong. And since Quilatalap was overhearing them the whole time, he would then correct them on their failings. It didn’t always work, but sometimes it did. And sometimes the trial-taker would forgo their reward and ask to be taught by Quilatalap, and sometimes Quilatalap would agree.

“And then a month later I would be murdering a fledgling necromancer with too much power and not enough self-control.” Silverite said, “Power is a good look on you, Erick. You have done Good with that power. You would have been crowned a Saint, if not for all the controversial things you have done, and if the world hadn’t gotten a lot more crazy since your ascent to power. Provided everything works out how we all hope it will, you will be crowned a Saint by some god or another. Maybe Rozeta, or Koyabez, or Phagar, or… Rozeta’s father, if he should regain his mind.

“Most people are not like you.

“Most people would not forgive their enemies and seek a better way. Most people would have been put down or straightened out by Stratagold or Oceanside for stepping too far out of line.” Silverite ended with, “And that’s really my problem with Quilatalap. He gives power to all who would ask for it, and prove themselves worthy. He is a priest of Melemizargo as much as he is a Holy Necromancer of Koyabez. And that is dangerous.”

Erick said, “I hear what you’re saying, and I thank you for your words, but I don’t have to worry about Quilatalap being used against me and that’s a major draw. Yes, he comes with baggage, but so do I, and I could use the ally, and we’re just dating right now, but I’ll let you know if it progresses further than that.”

Silverite was concerned, and probably for a thousand different reasons. If she wanted to, she could dig up recorded history, and show, with documented examples, exactly how much danger Erick was getting himself into. But she chose not to do any of that. She discarded all the rest of her words. With that simple decision made, she said, “I’m happy if you’re happy, Erick. I hope it works out between you.” She added, “But to speak as nations for a moment: He’s indirectly dangerous in vast, unknowable ways. Be careful.”

Erick smiled a little. “I will. Thank you for your concern. And thanks for the well-wishes.” And then he offered, “If any of the archmages of Spur want a [Reincarnation], or if you need help with anything, let me know and I’ll try to help”

Silverite sat fractionally straighter. “Thank you for the offer. I’ll… Let them know of your offer, and I’ll let you know if I need or desire anything in particular. There is one thing I can think of right now: Do you know when, if at all, you will be getting the Local Area Gate Network up and operational for the Crystal Forest? I understand that’s going to go through the Wayfarer’s?”

“It will probably go through the Wayfarer’s, yes. It’ll probably be active next month, after the Triumph of Light. 15 days? Something like that. There’re only a few places to even connect to in the Crystal Forest, anyway. Vindin. Outpost. Kal’Duresh. Ar’Kendrithyst, when it gets more stable and when Anhelia actually asks for a Gate. None of the other have asked for Gates, either, except in the most roundabout ways that mean they’re just checking, and they’re not actually interested.”

“That may be true for a while, but it will change fast. There’s going to be a surge of new cities out there, popping up and asking for Gates.” Silverite said, “Since you have these Version 5 Gates that don’t need upkeep on the other side, perhaps the Wayfarers could consider opening up Gates to other adventuring locations within the sands? Like the Hole north of Spur, or any number of places on the far eastern edge of the sands, like the Singular Mountain, or the Rocky Crags, or Empire Ruins?”

“… That’s a good idea.” Erick tried, “Would you like Spur to be a part of that collective? I can take Spur’s Gate off of Financial Road and make a nexus area with all of those locations inside that collection. Make all the Crystal Forest reachable from one 500 meter square block?”

Silverite smiled softly. “We’d take a second Gate in that space, actually. Keep the first one for business and make the new one fully for transportation of people and small, personal goods.”

“I can make that happen.” Erick asked, “Oh? Are you able to talk about the Feast?”

Silverite said, “We can talk about that; sure. But I’m not worried, and you’re going to do fine. Are you worried?”

“Yeah I’m worried! Ha! At least a little, anyway.” Erick smiled again. “You’re not worried I’m ‘falling to the Dark’, or something? I’ve gotten about a hundred letters to that effect so far.”

Silverite shook her head, saying, “I’m not worried about you in that way at all. I am absolutely sure that Melemizargo and the Shades and maybe even Quilatalap will try and talk about how ‘fine’ Melemizargo is, and about ‘how it used to be’ and ‘how it will be again’. But I trust you not to fall down that path… Or at least not until Melemizargo proves himself as not-insane, and his clergy as non-genocidal. Maybe after 50 years of good behavior. But am I worried about you actually choosing their side? Or: is this all some sort of elaborate plot by the Dark, and you, a Wizard, have already fallen to the Dark? No. Not worried about that, either.”

With a grin, Erick said, “For someone who is not worried at all, you’ve hit upon all the major complaints people are leveling at me.”

“Only idiots who haven’t been paying attention would be worried about you at this point.” Silverite shrugged. “But there are lots of idiots in the world. So… Good luck with that.”

Erick laughed.

There was more small talk of smaller concerns, but soon enough, Silverite departed back to Spur.

- - - -

There were more meetings, including a sudden meeting with Goldie about party arrangements, which led to a deep dive into housing arrangements. Erick spent all of twenty minutes sorting the rooms in the Shade Tower for the various Shades who would be coming.

He would have done more for that effort, but Zolan interrupted him with an urgent concern. Erick suspected it was an early meeting with Kirginatharp, but nope!

It was something much more directly awful.

And now, inside Erick’s office, with Zolan standing across from him, Erick sat in front of a dangerous looking letter. It had arrived via army courier, from the Sovereign Cities, handed over by a man in formal blue fatigues. The envelope itself was affixed with five official seals, each done in a different color of wax. Killtree, North Curio, South Curio, Charme, and Pearl; all the major self-named ‘Sovereign Cities’, though, in the case of this letter they acted like a republic, or something.

The letter held the same seals as the envelope, but these ones had little tassels and were covered in foil to make them stand out even more. The words on the letter were rather simple, and written with ease of comprehension in mind; there was no calligraphy here.

- -

To Erick Flatt, Wizard of Darkness, Pawn of Ar’Kendrithyst, Consort of Necromancy, Purveyor of Dark Particle Magic, Spawner of the False World Tree Yggdrasil, and Future-Killer-of-Veird.

We will be coming for you, and for the people of your Gambler’s Rest, with fire and death.

Spare most of your people your own fate.

Submit to our rule. Kill the rebels of Gambler’s Rest. Kill all the shadelings you have allowed to live. Kill all the corrupted souls you have placed into new bodies. Then, you must turn your Gate Network over to the True Rulers of Veird.

When those tasks are done, for the good of the world, for the memory of the person you might once have been, clasp yourself in chains of hardest adamantium and antirhine, and report to Charme, or Pearl, or North Curio, or South Curio, or Killtree.

Once there, you will be Sundered as a Wizard should be Sundered.

Fail to do any of our requests, and we will be forced to annihilate you in ways that you will never see coming. We will bring death to ‘Weald’, and then to Ar’Cosmos, who is yet another enemy of the world. We will fully destroy Candlepoint.

We have methods you cannot imagine.

Spare your good people, Erick Flatt, by executing those who are evil.

Do as we demand and prepare for your End, Wizard.

Otherwise, this is war.

- -

Erick had read the letter ten times in as many seconds. And then he went slower, and more methodical. Based on the look on Zolan’s face…

… Yes, this was a real letter.

… Yes, the Sovereign Cities were officially, really and truly, declaring war.

Erick looked up to Zolan. And yup, Zolan was still of the mind that this letter was real. He did not look too concerned, but that was only because he was hiding it well. Despite Erick’s vast powers, as both a dragon and a Wizard, despite Erick’s allies and magic, despite all of the power at Erick’s disposal, this here was a real declaration of war.

And despite the various levels of shitery and idiocy that characterized most citizens and especially the rulers of the Sovereign Cities, those rulers were world powers, because you had to be a world power in order to control any part of this world… Which was a bit self evident, Erick thought. But there it was.

Zolan asked, “What shall we do about this?”

Erick had managed to keep his all-consuming anger at bay until Zolan asked that question.

Some of that anger escaped him.

“The easiest solution is that I, personally, am going to murder every single person in power over there and dismantle everything that makes the Sovereign Cities ‘sovereign’. Reinstating a cooperative and better kind of government will be a pain that I cannot actually do right now, nor can I ask my overseers or the people of Candlepoint or otherwise to take up that burden, so that would be a problem that I cannot accept. And so, I will need to look to lesser solutions. Perhaps the best solution is to ask around at Gambler’s Rest for whoever wants to control that place, and then give them the Cities.” Erick said, “But I don’t really know all the people of Gambler’s Rest, and they’re all the second string revolutionaries, because the Sovereign Cities killed all the first string when they went into peace talks.

“So one thing I will not be doing is attempting peace talks, for the Cities killed the Dicers who had been attempting peace, and I will not have a repeat of the Chelation War.” Erick added, “But, I admit, that that is my anger talking. Do you have any better ideas?”

“… Those peace talks between the Dicers and the Cities failed because they didn’t use a [Zone of Peace], because every power at that meeting had a Domain and they could push back against that magic enough to kill. But that is only one thought on why that talk failed. Personally, I am rather certain that both sides chose to go into those talks without a [Zone of Peace] and oversight from Koyabez’s clergy because they were both preparing to kill the other side. The Cities just struck first.”

Erick stood up from his seat, saying, “Possibly correct. I shall go ask them about all that. Would you like to join me?”

“No, I will not. This is not because I do not want to, but because I should be seen as a softer side to you.” Zolan said, “Take Burhendurur, though. But I would say, in confidence, that this declaration of war could be a trick. If it is not a trick, then opting to murder all of the leaders of the Sovereign Cities is something that should not be done. It lets people know that you are willing to assassinate your way to victory, and then they’ll send assassins after you.”

“… Your words are heard and understood. And yet… I really want to murder all the leaders over there, all of their army, turn their weapons into slag and—” Erick stopped himself.

He breathed for a little bit, as lightning trickled out of his fingertips like crawling, skittering spider legs, leaving trails of black upon the white surface of his desk. Erick controlled his flooding anger, beating it down into submission, trying not to think about how he had sought to give Terror Peaks a chance to surrender, and how they had thrown that chance back in his face and killed over 4 million people. Maybe a lot more. Who knew how many people, exactly, had died to supply lines failing and oozes birthing in unmaintained sewer systems and monsters coming in from the plains, without armies to stop them…

Erick breathed.

Erick said, “I won’t be making the same mistake again.” He looked down to the letter as though it had personally murdered a thousand people already. “I will contain my anger until it is no longer a benefit to contain my anger.”

Zolan was terrified, but only a small part of that was about Erick.

War was not a lightly-declared thing on Veird.

Erick almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the Sovereign Cities declaring war on him, on House Benevolence and on Candlepoint. But…

War was not a lightly-declared thing on Veird. Or anywhere, really.

Erick said to him, “Ophiel will protect you.” He had an Ophiel fly down to turn tiny and rest on Zolan’s shoulder. Zolan glanced at the little guy, and the little guy, who was a single eye and a tiny pair of hummingbird wings, looked up at him. And then Ophiel plinked with magic, and he suddenly held a shield of silver spikes; an [Animadversion]. Erick said, “Please make wartime preparations and alert Ophiel if you wish for more time to make those plans. Alert Burhendurur. I need to go and pick up some people from home and… We’re probably going to have a big meeting.”

Zolan bowed, and then he turned and left.

Erick called out to the shadows of the room, “Goldie. Are you there?”

The shadows flickered, then stilled.

It was a full 15 seconds before Goldie appeared in her full black battle leathers, with her black plank of a sword hovering behind her. She took a knee, saying, “Sir!”

“Counter assassination protocols. The fucking Sovereign Cities —of all the fucking places!— have just declared war. Do what you have to do to ensure no one dies.” Erick said, “I know Mox’s people are around here, too, so enlist whoever you have to enlist.”

Goldie’s eyes pinched a little. “Uh. Yes sir! But. Uh… The Sovereign Cities?” She frowned. “Really?”

“Maybe they are no longer fond of ruling over their piles of shit, and wish to pass on from this world. I do not know at the moment, but I am going to find out.”

Goldie gave a small joyous laugh, then said, “Sir!” right before vanishing.

- - - -

Erick went to Burhendurur, first. After collecting the Overseer of Enforcement for a fast meeting, Erick’s circle of collection rapidly grew to include Aisha and Poi and Teressa. Tasar joined because she could, and soon, the news of what was happening had spread far, far outside of House Benevolence. Mephistopheles, Justine, and Slip, from Candlepoint attended the meeting, along with a few people from Weald who Erick knew of, but whom he didn’t really know beyond their names. A few people from the Stratagold embassy, the Wayfarer’s embassy, and Portal’s embassy, were also roped into attending, for the Sovereign City’s declaration affected them, as well.

Erick truly had no idea what the fuck the nobility of the Sovereign Cities were thinking, and from the small comments of others, they didn’t understand the motivation of the Sovereign Cities either.

Erick spared a second to ask Poi if his sister was fine, and Poi rapidly assured him that this was more important right now. From what Erick was picking up from the sapphirescale man, he was not lying, but he was stretching his personal truth. Which was fine.

And then Erick went and collected others for the war preparation.

The main meeting room of House Benevolence had gone unused until now. Placed right below the throne room, the main room was the second largest room in the whole House, being an amphitheater-like, United-Nations-adjacent, sort of space. It was like any sort of political debate stage. The only real difference was the large angular and stylized relief of Yggdrasil at the back of the large room, behind where the speakers would talk on their podiums.

It had taken about 30 minutes to organize this meeting, but in that short amount of time, Erick and others managed to grab about 60 people. Some outliers included a few people from Stratagold city (and not just the embassy) who Tasar had rapidly coordinated, and a few Elites from Oceanside, here on behalf of Kirginatharp. Erick had spoken briefly to the Second to Rozeta, and while Kirginatharp had been expecting to talk about Quilatalap and reprimand Erick for that foolishness (which he did a little, anyway) he had not been expecting any talk of war between House Benevolence and anyone else in the world. The Headmaster had been caught offguard, but he reoriented his complaints about Quilatalap to a more productive path; he had no idea what the fuck the Cities were doing either, and that was much more important than who Erick decided to fuck. And so, while Kirginatharp had sent a few of his Elites here to personally report back to him, he had also told Erick that he would be sending word to the Sovereign Cities, too, to try to get to the bottom of that stupidity.

Kirginatharp sent to Erick, ‘The Cities are not the best place to live in this world, but they are not deserving of annihilation.’

‘Maybe not the people, but the nobility? I think they might be exactly that deserving.’

‘… Give me some time on my end, please, Erick.’

Erick abided by that request, for now.

And anyway, the first thing Erick had decided on doing in response to this newest crisis was to talk to the refugees of Gambler’s Rest, to understand this conflict that House Benevolence had been dragged into.

Hence, the auditorium meeting.

Now that everyone was present, Erick stood at the side of the podium and cast magic as he spoke, “I’m filling the room with my newer spell, [Expandable Hasted Shelter]. As you can see, multiple casts overlap and greatly expand the range of this magic.” The entire room filled with multiple casts. “We’re going to take our time with this conversation, for the people of Gambler’s Rest are going to inform us of everything they know of their conflict.” As magic settled into the room, Erick turned to the three people who had previously been rebels. “Harridon, in the red armor, the new mayor of Gambler’s Rest. Glorida in the yellow, and working on trade concerns. And Bobbi, with the enchanted glass headgear, who I believe is working with Mox on the dungeons. They’re all pretty good with dungeoneering due to their rapid need to learn all about that, because they needed all that extra essence to force-Matriculate people, since Registrars were illegal over in the Sovereign Cities. They have a Registrar now, though, over at the Rest, and it is my understanding that Candlepoint and Weald also have registrars.

“The previous leaders of the Dicers were assassinated in an attempted peace talk with the Sovereign Cities, thus ending their rebellion. And now the Sovereign Cities have openly declared war on House Benevolence, though technically they are only targeting ‘all the evil people’, according to their letter. They want me to murder all of the former Dicers and a bunch of others before handing myself over to them for summary Sundering execution after—” Erick almost wanted to laugh. “—after I somehow ‘give them’ the Gate Network.” He forced a small smile, saying, “I’m leaning toward murdering them all and attempting to install a puppet government over there, because I know how trying peace talks with similar people went before. I will not have a repeat of Terror Peaks.” He yielded the floor to the former Dicers, saying, “If anyone has a better idea than murdering them all, let me know! That’s what this meeting is about— Oh!

“And to get this out of the way:

“I have looked into the lightning sky of Benevolence, and this right here is not even a shadow of a tangle. My two Seers of Benevolence —working title— agree that whatever this shit the Sovereign Cities is trying to pull, it probably won’t kill a whole lot of people, or it will only be killing the bad people. Or something. I don’t know.” Erick shrugged. “Futures change on the whims of the present, so… Anyway: The Dicers.”

To stunned silence, Erick stepped off the stage and went to the front row, where he sat down to the left, next to Poi.

The man in red armor, Harridon, was supremely flustered by Erick’s words. But he was also filled with a mirror of Erick’s own righteous indignation, and beaming hope. He stepped forward to the central podium, while Glorida and Bobbi followed closely. Glorida and Bobbi began casting lightwards into the air, but faltered after casting the first ones. Everyone looked to the woman in yellow and the fishbowl-head guy, as the two of them looked at their own hands, uncomprehending—

Erick spoke, “The time dilation of [Expanded Hasted Shelter] means you get one Script spell every 60 seconds; for every minute that passes in here, only one Script Second passes out there. All this really means is that we have ample time to talk, so do what you can, as you can. Feel free to learn aura control later, if you want to cast magic outside of the Script Second.”

A lot of people in the audience had no idea what the fuck Erick was talking about; ‘casting outside of the Script Second’. But Erick saw as they experimented with their own tiny spells to confirm his words; light flickered inside hands and under desks, and eyes went wide. Those people would be asking others about all of that later.

A lot of other people in the audience were slightly perturbed that Erick would even be spilling minor secrets like that. That section of people mostly included the wrought from Stratagold. The wrought of House Benevolence were unaffected by Erick’s casual release of important, yet semi-hidden information.

The people from Gambler’s Rest understood what Erick meant by his words; but the time dilation thing caught them off guard.

Glorida and Bobbi both changed tactics, with Bobbi’s clear-colored aura stretching out of his body and forming crude lightsculptures. Glorida frowned at that, but she attempted the same, using her slow, yellow aura to conjure a map in the air. It was a much worse attempt than Bobbi’s. She rapidly erased it.

Harridon, meanwhile, had been talking, “I have been asked to give an overview of the Dicers and our war effort against the nobility of the Sovereign Cities. As Wizard Flatt has said, our war ended when the nobles of the Sovereign Cities assassinated our leaders in peace talks—” Before he had spoken, had been distracted by the severity of Erick’s own emotions, and that had caused him to falter slightly, but he caught up to himself in that moment. An endless rage began to shine through his calm voice, like a banked hearth given fuel for the fire, and stirred to life once more. “Wellwisher, our former leader, and his second, Soriila, were invited to a neutral location, outside of Killtree. The other side of that meeting was King Killtree, and King Charme, along with representatives for Queen Pearl, King Curio Sook, and King Curio Xaro. Our side had three more representatives, to make for an even meeting.

“We did not seek a [Zone of Peace] from the priests of Koyabez because it works at 75% effectiveness against Domain magics, and four people at that meeting had Domains active.

“They stayed on topic for two hours, as our demands were listened to and then modified by the nobility, and compromises were reached. After a few more hours of discussion, the war likely would have ended, and peace would have happened. We would have created a sixth Sovereign City on the coast between Killtree and Charme.

“And then, in the middle of talking about trade routes, King Charme and King Killtree decided that they had seen enough.” Harridon’s eyes flickered red as he tried to control his anger and mostly succeeded. “The both of them had been participating in the talks well enough. But for half an hour, they had gone disinterested. We didn’t know what we were looking at until they decided to stand up and kill our people. They locked down the space with Domain magic and overpowered our leaders. and then Killtree took Wellwisher’s head, and Charme took Sorilla’s heart. They murdered our people, and then handed out one head to each of the five Cities, along with lightsculptures of the other four. Those heads and magics are still on display at the kingdoms of the five Cities.

“That’s what they do over there. Thousands of Dicer heads are held on display in their grand mansions and palaces, as trophies of how many of our people they have killed. But not just our people. They do this for every powerful person they kill. Those heads will stay on display for a year.”

Had…

Had Erick heard that right?

Yes. He had.

Erick’s mind went blank with fury. All he could do was listen.

Harridon continued, “But the worst part were the lies.”

Like Harridon was lancing an infected wound he had never before gotten the chance to lance, Harridon ripped open his soul and barred all the evil that the Sovereign Cities had committed. He spoke of campaigns of hatred against the Dicers, with wanted posters plastered at every Adventurer’s Guild and Mage Guild and otherwise, listing crimes that they did not commit. Stories from bards in taverns. Stories yelled in town squares that were complete lies. He spoke of how the world knew the Dicers as ‘empowered by Darkness’, due to the Elemental Dice that Shade Toymaker had made, which started their whole rebellion. That initial Elemental Die story was true, but like anything that came from the Shades, it was how the magic was used that made it evil; not the magic itself.

And then Harridon spoke of truly evil acts of physical violence perpetrated by mayors and barons and guard captains against women, and men, and how all those acts of horror were shown to the world as ‘acts by the Dicers’.

It was hard to believe the depravity of the Sovereign Cities. And yet...

Erick easily believed every word out of Harridon’s mouth, for he could tell Harridon was not lying, and Erick had seen much of the squalor of the Cities himself. Main cities, with wooden slat-board houses everywhere! Unpaved roads. Stone noble mansions. The rich, high on the hills, and the poor living in the dirt, in the rain, and the mud. Jane had gotten a much more personal look at that place, long before Erick showed up and cleared out a ballooning spider horde before it descended upon Killtree. The stories Jane told painted the nobility as either complete idiots, or purposefully malicious, and it was hard to tell which one was more true.

But now, ‘purposefully malicious’ seemed to be the most correct version of events.

By the time Harridon was done talking, he had spoken of the Dicer’s entire rebellion against the Sovereign Cities and peppered that speech with specific examples of what the various cities were doing that the Dicers wanted changed. He had spoken of specific battles fought against conscripted soldiers, who were only there because that was the only way they could Matriculate and pull themselves out of the mud. He had spoken of assassinations attempted in order to circumvent the need for a war. Behind him, Glorida and Bobbi had conjured tens of images of maps, and horrors taken from memory, and examples of why the Sovereign Cities needed to end.

“— and why,” Harridon ended with, “You cannot trust them to honor a peace treaty, or to even come to a peace talk honestly. You can only end them, as we tried to do, and yet failed.”

A few people in the audience were fired up and ready for a war that was worth fighting, for all the right reasons. One of those people was Erick. Others included Teressa, and Kiri, and all the other Dicers in the audience, and all the Elites from Oceanside, and most of the people from Ar’Cosmos. The people from Ar’Cosmos was a weird addition, but Erick noticed that bloodlust in their eyes, for sure.

Others were more worried. That seemed to be the normal reaction.

Erick stood up, in the silence following Harridon’s speech. All eyes turned to him, as he said, “So I’m ready to kill them all.” He looked upon the suddenly worried, relieved, and resigned faces of the people of the Greater Candlepoint Area, asking, “But will someone speak for some lesser solution? Anyone at all? Multiple people are welcomed to speak to all of us here, and to start a dialogue. I will attempt peace if it is the best solution decided here, and then accepted by me.”

As though people had spoken outside of Erick’s Sight, which they had, a few eyes glanced toward one person in particular.

And Zolan stood up, saying, “I would speak for something smaller than unilateral genocide.”

Erick gestured to the podium.

Everyone watched as Zolan began walking forward.

Harridon and his people vacated the stage, looking rather joyful. They all knew that whatever Zolan was going to say would not change Erick’s mind. By the time this meeting was over, their failed revolution would reignite and sweep across the Sovereign Cities with all the wrath of a Wizard.

… Erick had some hope that Zolan could change that, though.

Erick did not want to go to war with the Sovereign Cities. He would, though, especially if they actually had threats they could back up. There were a few ways Erick considered that they could actually hurt him… But vanishingly few ways that Benevolence wouldn’t pick up on, first.

Such an attack would have to inherently be anti-prognostication, anti-Sightable, and anti… Well. Anti-magic. So lead was high on the list of possibilities. Some sort of lead dust dispersal in the air? Maybe. What… Like a thousand tons of the stuff, turned to dust, and scattered across… Yggdrasil and the Gate District and Candlepoint, and all the other Yggdrasil in every other part of the world? … Eh. Not likely.

Some sort of artifact from Ar’Kendrithyst’s Armory? Something taken from that place in the ransacking of the days following Last Shadow’s Feast? … More likely.

Something like the Amulet of Non-Presence? Fairy Moon still had that. But...

Other people could make some of those, though, right?

… If someone could make those, then they could make enough of them that they could rope others into their Non-Presence group, if those people looked like they were willing to actually go up against Erick.

The Soul Spears from the Chelation War which had almost killed Erick would be a pretty good way to attack him again, if someone actually did that right this time. Luckily all of Ophiel and every Yggdrasil was now wearing an [Animadversion] shield, along with other protective magics. Erick would not be caught off guard again by a soul-targeting spell like that.

Of course, Fairy Moon could be involved in this herself, directly. But of course, that meant that all of his people could be in on this, too. That was a bit too much paranoia for him, though. At this moment in time, anyway.

Erick glanced around the room as Zolan took the stage. He wondered…

Were any of them plotting against him?

… Probably not.

Erick looked up to Zolan.

Zolan began, “To understand the Sovereign Cities, one must first understand the notion of complete independence. Everything about those many smaller cultures stems from there. They do not help their neighbors, for that is an insult to their neighbors. They do not help their children, for that is an insult to their children. They do not accept help from the nobility, for that is an insult to their own self.

“The second thing to understand is that the nobility purposefully keeps this myth of independence going strong.

“Some of the nobility propagates this myth because that is how they were raised. Some, because they know this myth is what keeps their opposition divided. It is impossible to tell who is actually a true believer of this notion of supreme independence, and who is using this culture to their own benefit.

“Almost all the larger noble houses are the second type; the users. That is how they got large in the first place; by recognizing the truth that people are stronger together.

“Almost all the smaller businesses and vendors and producers are the first type; the used. That is why they remain small.

“Anyone of the small groups who choose to ignore this myth and reach for the hands of their neighbors are ruthlessly exterminated by the larger groups. Sometimes, though, a small group can manage to break out of this pattern, and become a new force. The Dicers almost managed this but they ultimately failed.

“This culture is why registrars are ‘illegal’ over there. I use that term loosely, for registrars are not actually ‘illegal’. They are legal when the people in power use them, for every single person in power is required, by law, to Matriculate.

“The majority of commoners see Matriculation as an acceptance of the Dark into their lives. They don’t like magic. They don’t appreciate mana. They don’t want to Matriculate. This is a gross simplification, and I can already see the Dicers shaking their heads, and others among the audience going wide-eyed at how this could possibly be possible.

“I see you asking, ‘How is it possible that people could think of the Script as evil?’, and that answer is complex and yet simple. In a simple way, many different cultures on Veird have this idea, because this idea is one ingrained into the world by the Dark.

“In another simple way, and with regard to the Sovereign Cities in particular, this is the result of the nobility controlling every part of their nation. In a complex way, I can point to the fact that without widespread Matriculation, and the ability to easily read that comes with that Matriculation, that most people cannot read over there. And so, the nobility hires bards to go to taverns and town squares, to shout the news in storied verse. Everyone who wants to know what is going on will go to those taverns and town squares, and under the watchtowers of the nobility, they will talk to each other about everything. Approved stories get passed around. Unapproved stories do not.

“I could say more on that, but we’ve all heard Harridon speak on that.” Zolan continued, “I will, however, say that what you have heard today is Sighting the Sovereign Cities in the worst possible light.

“In a better light, but without discounting that they have declared war on this land:

“The nobility of the Sovereign Cities works together to push back the monsters. This is first and foremost the duty of the nobility in any part of the world. Almost everything else is secondary to ensuring a safe living space. Variations on this stance would also describe the wrought, and Oceanside, and every other nation on this planet.

“Yes, the Sovereign Cities fight amongst each other, causing death and violence and other horrors, but to change that would require changing their entire culture, which is not something one can do with a [Precision Strike], or with any violent spellwork. One might as well tell Nelboor to stop fighting. Or the dragons to stop fighting. Or the Quiet War to end…” Zolan frowned. “But then again, those are some of our very goals here at the House.” And then he looked out to the audience, and said, “I have decided…

“I have decided that to continue speaking for the good of the Sovereign Cities, would be antithetical to what I believe. We have the capability to end certain horrors of the world, and so the problems of the Sovereign Cities are one problem we can, should, and must end.

“I don’t believe that complete violence is the answer, though.”

As everyone else held concern or vindication or confusion on their face—

Erick spoke, “Violence solved the problem of the Shades, and this whole idea of ending the Sovereign Cities would be erasing one of the greatest lies told by Melemizargo in his insanity; that the Script is evil.”

Zolan said to Erick, “The nobility of the Sovereign Cities are not Shades.”

“I have ended face stealer threats, and monster threats, and cult threats, all through violence.” Erick said, “Even Koyabez says that sometimes violence is the answer.”

“And if you use violence as the head of a state, violence will be used against you,” Zolan said, his words clipped, disbelieving that he even needed to say those words. “It sets a bad precedent that when idiots threaten you, that you murder them. They are idiots, Erick. They are stupid, stupid people, pissing into the wind to assert dominance, not realizing that the wind fly back in their face and turn them and their whole empire to sand.”

Erick frowned. “Have the Sovereign Cities ever sent a threat of war against the wrought? Against Oceanside?” He scoffed. “Against Ar’Cosmos, or Ar’Kendrithyst? I’m trying to pull a lot of separate people together here, and I will not have this ruined by idiots, and especially not idiots who kill people at peace talks.”

Zolan easily said, “They have sent letters of war against Ar’Kendrithyst. And then a Shade came into the Cities and beat up their highest level warriors for a good ten days, feasting and partying while they did so. It was the Shade of War, about 250 years ago.”

… Huh.

Erick did not think Zolan was lying, but it was nice to see a few nods around the room confirm Zolan’s crazy story. Harridon’s lips narrowed, and Bobbi whispered to Glorida about the Shade of War only happening 235 years ago; not 250.

Zolan continued, “The Cities sometimes send letters of war against Ar’Cosmos, too. They have worked with the Dragon Stalkers out of Oceanside quite often when they do this, in order to try and suss out whatever dragons might be living inside the Cities. I think it has worked once, though I am unsure how often they have tried that, so it could have worked multiple times.

“They have sent one letter of war against Oceanside but the Headmaster took care of that, and it was long before my time. I don’t know the particulars of that, either. I believe the particulars of that are what caused the Headmaster to use you to end the ballooning spider threat against Killtree, for he did not want to go himself.

“If they have sent letters against the wrought, then I am completely unaware of those.”

Erick was stunned, again. With a scrunched face, and full in disbelief himself, Erick asked, “So this was what? A stunt? A publicity stunt by them to make their leaders… What? Look good against ‘the evil Wizard in the tower?’ or some other such shit?”

“No. Absolutely not.” Zolan said, “The upper echelons of their nobility are absolutely capable of murdering thousands of people at once, if they wanted. However. This might simply be a starting tactic to get you to come to the table in certain ways. I would talk more in private about specific capabilities, if you would allow it.”

Erick scowled as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing. After a moment, he said, “Thank you, Zolan, for your expertise. We will talk later.”

Zolan bowed, then stepped off the stage.

Erick asked, “Would anyone else care to talk about the Sovereign Cities? I would have more opinions. Personal stories of your own experiences there would be helpful, for I am, apparently, simply not experienced enough with them to make any sort of broad decisions right now.”

All three Dicers were suddenly worried that maybe Erick wouldn’t avenge them.

Erick added, “Raise your hand, or whatever. Who wants to talk n— You. Bobbi. Go ahead. Take the stage. I would hear from Mephistopheles next, and then you from Stratagold. I believe your name is Merulia?”

Merulia nodded. She was a human woman of pale copper-like metal that almost looked like flesh-tone skin. She also wore actual clothes instead of her metal as clothes. Erick suspected she was a hellite/demonstone blend of some sort, but he wasn’t 100% on that.

Bobbi was on the stage, and he started talking.

He spoke of war crimes both large, as in the murder of prisoners, and small, as in the savaging of captured soldiers. He spoke of his life before all that, when he wanted to be a farmer, like his father and his father before him, but how he needed [Grow]. So he signed up for Matriculation, and the army. His first years in the army had him murdering villages of people who were ‘building outside of noble control’. At the time, this was perfectly normal to him, but what wasn’t normal was how the army operated. All his life Bobbi had been independent and true to how a proper man should be. But then the army had everyone on schedules, and working toward a common good. He had rebelled hard against all that in the beginning. But then he saw how well the army worked, and how poorly the ‘housing rebels’ fought; that’s what the army always called the people who made houses of stone, like it was wrong. ‘Housing rebels’.

His first real wake-up call came when they marched on an old woman’s house in the middle of some woods. The old woman had been supplying a town with medicine for an outbreak that [Cleanse] could have solved all on its own.

The army made their unit assault and kill the old woman.

And the story continued.

Erick listened. By the time Bobby was done, Erick wanted to kill every noble in the world.

Bobbi got off the stage.

In a small surprise, Burhendurur was the actual next person to speak. The incani-like man seemed like he had something rather important to say, and so he had asked Mephistopheles and Merulia to give way. They obliged.

Burhendurur began, “We should murder every single king and queen of the Sovereign Cities and install the Benevolence Dragons over there as caretakers, alongside the rebels Gambler’s Rest.”

The audience looked on, wide-eyed at that sudden declaration.

Burhendurur continued, “Zolan was right about the Sovereign Cities sending letters of war against Ar’Cosmos. This happens every so often; once every 40 years, perhaps. Every time such a declaration comes a dragon or five gets outed in the Cities, and then gets put down as they try to fight over desolate lands, for the Sovereign Cities are very good at killing dragons, for Dragon Hunters can overcome all the innate physical defenses of [Dragon Body]. The Cities have lots of Dragon Hunters, for the Cities are something of the birthplace of the Dragon Stalkers, though the main offices are now in Oceanside.”

Erick really did need to speak more to Kirginatharp.

But for now, he listened.

Four hours and many presentations later, Erick knew two things for certain.

One. That the Sovereign Cities needed a change.

Two. That Erick would be that change.

- - - -

People went their separate ways in order to prepare for possible war with Domain-empowered individuals. There had been some deep unease with that, for a thousand different reasons. One of the largest reasons for that unease was expressed most succinctly by the wrought, and at the very end, by Aisha.

Aisha had said, “The killing of people with Domains is an awful thing, for everyone is needed in the war against the monsters, and especially those who have already proven themselves as capable against the Darkness. It is a deep, deep shame that the Cities have chosen this route.”

Stratagold and Oceanside would be confronting the Sovereign Cities on behalf of Erick and Candlepoint.

Ar’Cosmos, on the other hand, would be preparing to go to war right alongside Erick.

But for now...

Five minutes after the main meeting broke, Erick stood with Zolan, Mox, Burhendurur, Raingorl, Aisha, and Volaro, inside another meeting room. A much smaller space, this time. No one was actually seated yet, either, for Erick had told them that this wouldn’t take long.

Erick said, “I’m sure we all have about a hundred things to do right now that we never thought we needed to actually do. I was prepared for war two and three months ago, but apparently it’s happening now, and in ways I never expected. And so, I have gifts for everyone. A while ago —I can’t pinpoint exactly when— when it first appeared that things were going well, and that none of you were secret enemies, I had decided to wait until the Triumph of Light to give you these gifts.” Erick reached into a small ring of Benevolence lightning and pulled out a large white wooden box, that was actually six smaller boxes. Each one was Privacy’d, so there was no peeking before the real reveal. There was a lot of curiosity, though. Erick began handing out the boxes, which he had already labeled, to their respective people. “When this Shadow’s Feast business began, I decided to give these to you before that day. But now that we’re at war, you can have them now.” Erick canceled the Privacies.

Since everyone had mana sense, they saw their gifts before they opened the boxes. Zolan breathed in a little. Mox went solid. Aisha’s eyebrows went up. Raingorl looked pleased. Burhendurur and Volaro were concerned, and for good reason.

Erick said, “The white wood ones will work in Ar’Cosmos, but the fully diamond ones will only work on Veird, though the diamond ones are considerably stronger. Use whichever ones you want and give the others away, if you want. Or save the unused set for a dark day.”

Burhendurur’s countenance shifted entirely; he had been worried about getting an item that wasn’t compatible with the nature of Ar’Cosmos, where normal magical items didn’t work. He smiled as he popped open his gift. Four rings sat inside. Two of them were made of white wood, with prismatic-white blood-based inscriptions like raised sets of diamonds on top. The other two were [Exalted Rain] platinum-covered diamond rings, filled with Statlight. Everyone got the same set, but with rings sized to their own fingers. As they all began opening their gifts, there were a few unasked questions.

Erick answered them before they were asked, “They’re Strength, Vitality, Willpower, and Focus rings. The wooden ones give a total bonus of +50 for wearing both. The silver ones give +80. You can mix and match if you want, but I suggest no more than one ring per hand; that’s about all the enchanting resonance that those parts of a body can handle. Aisha, you could probably take all four rings into your body somewhere, but I’m still not sure how wrought work with enchanted items. If you break them, I can make more, so experiment if you want.” Erick said, “None of the rings have Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, or Perception. If you want one of those Stats, ask and you will receive them.”

Burhendurur and Volaro suddenly had trouble deciding which rings they were going to wear. Three of the other four had no such problems, slipping silver rings onto their fingers.

But Aisha wore the wooden rings, strangely enough, saying, “The metal ones rub off on me so I prefer Yggdrasil wood. Thank you, Erick.”

There were more ‘thank yous’, each of them deep and true. All of them seemed to be avoiding the subject of the New Stats, though. Erick still smiled a little, though, happy that he could give gifts like this to his people.

Continuing to smile, Erick said, “Think about if you want a New Stat; I mean it. They’re useful! I can probably [Reincarnation] you, Zolan, Mox, and Raingorl, if you decide you don’t want your first pick. But for Aisha, Burhendurur, and Volaro, that probably won’t work. I’m not even sure if [Reincarnation] will drop those New Stats, anyway. I’m rather sure that if you take 2 New Stats, that you will still turn shadeling. A [Reincarnation] can fix that, though, for sure.”

Burhendurur shook his head a little, marveling at his new rings briefly before saying, “No New Stats for me. The power that comes with them is not something I wish to invite that far into my soul.” He bowed his head a fraction. “No offense meant, of course.”

“None taken.” Erick said, “But anyway: think about the New Stats for a while.” He changed the subject, “Okay! So. We’ve got a war to win, and I don’t even have a general. You’re not up for that, are you, Burhendurur?”

Burhendurur said, “Absolutely not. I can defend, but I do not want armies of undead heralding the strength of House Benevolence out into the world, and I doubt you would either, once you calm down. It is understandable that you are angry at the Sovereign Cities, but creating an army of any sort is the wrong move right now.”

Everyone except Volaro looked at Burhendurur as though he was suddenly a different person.

With a scrunched face, Erick asked, “You don’t want the Cities purged of their nobility? But you spoke for that?”

Burhendurur frowned at that, saying, “I suddenly feel as though I desire a working ‘House Benevolence’ a lot more than the rest of you. A defensive war is fine. An offensive war is not. Let them come and break themselves upon our power… Though that is pretty dangerous so— And I know how this sounds, but I am going to say it anyway— perhaps if Quilatalap wants to keep ready with some [True Resurrection]s?” He shrugged. “Not a bad idea!”

Erick had no idea what to really say against that.

Zolan spoke up, “I do not want House Benevolence to have a standing army. That is my actual concern. It looks bad.”

“… Yes. I suppose…” Erick said, “I suppose…” He shook his head. “Let’s try for peace, first. I have [Zone of Peace] even if it’s not perfect and Yggdrasil is currently casting that magic all across the Greater Candlepoint Area, anyway, so whatever plans the Sovereign Cities have need to be… I don’t know. Antirhine clouds dropped down from high above? Parasites? Amulet of Non-Presence assassins? Some sort of other, physical way to assassinate me and others? Domain magics don’t work so well against a [Zone of Peace], but they’re still half effective; it’s why the Dicers didn’t bother with trying to get a [Zone of Peace] for their meeting with the royalty of the Sovereign Cities.”

Aisha said, “They still should have tried to get a [Zone of Peace]. Even if swords still work inside that magic, even if Domains can partially shrug it off. They still should have done that peace talk right.”

“I agree with Aisha,” Volaro said.

Almost quizzically, Aisha looked up at Volaro.

Volaro continued, “But I also think that using [Zone of Peace] when talking to Domain holders is like using a thin Platform to cover an Abyss; whatever sort of peace talks you have will simply be trapped in non-obvious ways.” The Carnage Dragon in an orcol body said, “So you should not have peace talks. You should find and assassinate every single king and queen and the next thirty people in line and watch the Cities implode. Nothing else needs to be done.”

Erick was not the only surprised person at the viciousness in Volaro’s suggestion.

Volaro added, “Or, you could [Blessing of Empathy] every single person in charge and let them sort themselves out. The Blessing way is likely the best way to avoid bloodshed, and would, no doubt, go down in history as one of the most beneficial soul-scourings in history, if you manage to pull it off. In addition to that, perhaps, as Burhendurur suggested back in that meeting, you should command the Benevolence Dragons to go deal with sorting that place out. It would give them something to do, at the least. One thing you should not do, though, is let the Dicers decide how this all plays out.” Volaro said, “While I am growing fond of the various judges and clerks of Gambler’s Rest, I don’t believe a single person from there should be put in charge of that nation. When it comes to judging in cases of abuses of power, they heavily lean toward the punitive side of the punitive/rehabilitative scale, and by a lot. If the Dicers would have actually won their rebellion, and I don’t mean sued for peace, but actually won—

“If they had won, the streets would have turned red with the blood of nobility, and then you’d get about 50 years of even more atrocities and a triple or quadruple overturn of nobles, leading to the very same situation that already exists over there.” Volaro said, “Historically, this is what happens when you solve nation-sized problems with violence.” He looked to Erick. “And not to put too fine a point on it, but you solved the problem of the Shades, and now we are here.”

A sword through the gut would have hurt less.

But Volaro was telling the truth.

As everyone else in that meeting looked either amazed that Volaro had actually come out and said that, or angry that he had done that, Erick just felt a bit numb.

As though knowing that his words would have achieved that result, Volaro nodded, then lessened his words, saying, “Millions dead, but in a hundred years, we’ll have whole new worlds. The Dark is not insane anymore. We have a new House of Ar’Cosmos. Dragons don’t have to hide. The Fractured Citadels are rejoining civilization, or at least one is. Tens of thousands of face stealers and killers dead. Hunters the world over eliminated. All the major killers and horrors of Songli ended. A Gate Network! Taking back the Crystal Forest. Clearing the Forest of Glaquin of horrific monsters. Helping refugees all across the world.

“House Benevolence has its roots deep in carnage, but through carnage, anything is possible, including remaking the entire world into something better.” With his eyes shining red, Volaro said, “Perhaps the Cities need a similar change, so let’s not kid ourselves in what such a change truly means.”

And again, no one spoke.

Eventually Raingorl said, “The Sovereign Cities are cursed to be shitholes.” He looked to Erick, saying, “Figuratively. There’s never been any proven, actual curses upon the land. We’ve looked.”

Zolan said, “Raingorl and Volaro bring up good points.” He said to Erick, “The Cities are a land of a million people, scattered across an area half the size of the Greensoil Republic. If the Sovereign Cities actually do attack, then the response cannot be overly punitive, but, since the outcomes of this war will determine the future of House Benevolence as much as any other action you have taken, the end result of this cannot be anything less than a long-term, secured peace. Which means traditional war and suing for peace will not work.”

Erick sighed a little. “You’re right, of course. I cannot expect a traditional war to end nearly as nice as I need it to end... So how about Stratagold, Oceanside, and Ar’Cosmos, try to come up with some sort of longer term solution?” Erick said, “Or maybe all of this shit is a stunt of some sort, and nothing will happen. Either way, I suppose we need to open a dialogue with these people. Zolan, please set that up, and also let me know when Kirginatharp wants to talk. Burhendurur, on defense. Everyone else, get their appointed spaces ready for a possible war. Let’s get to work.”

And so they did.