Erick started the day with an omelet, pancakes, and bacon, eaten on the porch as he watched the sunrise over Candlepoint. He had made his own breakfast as he sometimes did, while making more for Poi, Kiri, and Teressa, for when they eventually woke. Those were under preservation [Ward]s, for now.

He was alone, save for Ophiel and Yggdrasil, and a daily report from Zolan.

It was yesterday’s end of day summary, but it was more than that. Later in the report were the goals for today and the goals for the following weeks and months. There were even some long standing goals for the far future listed on page 3, the last page. ‘Open new worlds’ was the final entry. These reports were a nice way to start the day.

Zolan had made reports like this for Kirginatharp, and it was all too easy for Zolan to start making the same sorts of reports for Erick. Erick didn’t even have to request such reports. Zolan was simply good enough to know that reports needed to be made.

Today’s report seemed special, though. Almost all of the news was simply reports on what the other overseers were working on; current projects and the like, and how far along they were. Only two entries in the beginning had any sort of bearing on Erick’s plans for today.

Volaro had finally wrapped up the story of the meat thieves, putting to rest the problems with the disappearing livestock from last month. It had taken a while for Burhendurur and Slip to uncover and locate the 21 people who had been poaching from Candlepoint, but only a few days to capture them. Those people had been in confinement for a little while, and now, their trial was done.

Apparently, those 21 people were one great big extended family and their father had been exiled from the Wasteland for political issues, and the kids were the people who stole the livestock. They were terrified of the Wizard, but they felt they had no other choice but to steal to survive, and then they accidentally overcompensated in their theft. ‘They didn’t mean to steal that much, they swore!’ That was their story, anyway.

The outcome of the trial was an offer to join the ranch and work for the food they wanted, or exile, with the threat that being caught again was execution. It was a rather lenient sentence, all things considered.

Volaro’s official decree was that the defendants were lying about something, but that didn’t matter. If they proved to be good citizens, then he didn’t care if they lied (and Erick didn’t either, for he had been consulted before the final decree came down). Most of the chickens and cows were back with Daetroi, anyway, and in a few days, Daetroi would get 19 more people to work at the ranch.

Actually getting the livestock back didn’t mean much besides how it looked, politically, to protect Candlepoint from even the smallest of threats.

Erick had ‘solved’ the problem of not having enough meat options in town weeks ago; he had made Zolan figure it out. Zolan’s solution was to put Daetroi in contact with his own Wasteland contacts in order to buy more animals. The ranch had gotten more livestock within two days after that. And now, with 19 more people working under him, Daetroi and the other ranchers were no longer overworked.

Those 19 people hadn’t even stepped on the ranch yet, but Daetroi was glad to get them.

There was also a bit of news about the dungeons.

Mox’s Stone dungeon and Air dungeon were both starting to produce slimes, while the Water dungeon was ramping up to capacity. The Fire dungeon was still waiting for its first slimes, but that was normal. Fire dungeons took a long time to get going. The Light dungeon was on hold, because of Erick’s previous agreement with Kirginatharp to not do another Light dungeon for 10 years, but they had broken ground on the Shadow dungeon four nights ago. The shadelings Mox had hired for that area were working well. There was still no overt sign of Melemizargo down in those dark, damp tunnels, but he was still very much there, of course. Melemizargo was inside every darkened corner of every part of Veird. The Shadow dungeon might produce some good slimes in a month.

The Benevolence dungeon was a tower and a pit (since no one was quite sure which was best) situated to the north of the Gate District. It was ready for Erick’s experimentation, but he had been too busy to do much of that recently.

And that was it for current events!

A single report on the meat thieves, and a notice that Mox was ready for Erick to try his hand at making a Benevolence dungeon. Everything else was long term, from Zolan speaking with Songli to get a hookup to the Gate Network, to overtures of the same to Spur, to Aisha working on turning iron into viable magical metal, and other things.

Even the Benevolence dungeon wasn’t that much of a priority, because esoteric dungeons almost never worked. Erick was still going to try, though.

And so, since Erick didn’t have any necessary meetings, or anything like that…

What to do?

Time Magic with Phagar? A Boon from Rozeta? Or working on Benevolence? Or even making himself into more of a Wizard, with forceful accretion? He could even have a talk on dragons with Burhendurur and/or Volaro.

Erick smiled as he considered his possibilities—

Poi joined Erick on the porch, carrying his own breakfast.

“Morning, Poi!” Erick happily asked, “Any news I should know about?”

“Nothing I can think of.” Poi asked, “What do you want to do today?”

Smiling again, Erick asked himself, “What do I want to do today? I think…”

Erick took a look around his kingdom.

… And it was doing alright. People were already out at the market. Goods were coming through the Stratagold Gates, stopping at customs, and then moving either to parts unknown, or moving through a Gate that led across the Gate Road, to the Wayfarer’s Guildhouse. The people at that guildhouse then moved goods to buyers all across the Crystal Forest. Some of that stuff was even headed toward Spur.

Stuff was headed out, but stuff was also headed in, appearing in the center of the Wayfarer’s guildhouse and then moving through a Gate to the other side of the Gate Road, to Stratagold’s property, where it moved through more Gates and into the Underworld.

Stuff was also headed through Gates that led to Candlepoint, where another Wayfarer’s office had set up down the road from Market Street. People in Candlepoint were buying goods from the lands around Stratagold, while the lands around Stratagold were buying all sorts of foods that grew best up here, or fabrics from the spidery, or meat from the ranch.

The world was moving through Erick’s [Gate]s, and it was good.

It wasn’t much right now, but the volume was increasing daily.

Surprisingly enough, Erick had only ever had to recast a [Gate] into one of the Gates once, and only because someone was doing some very drunk shipping and rammed into the side of the Gate with a million ton shipment of pure white marble, multiple times. The first ramming didn’t budge the physical Gate at all, but the second ramming actually managed to move the glowing white square and break the [Gate] on the inside.

Aside from that recast, which took all of ten minutes to do, Erick’s Gate Network was working well. House Benevolence was doing pretty good, too. All of Erick’s overseers were doing their jobs, and they were doing them well. This whole organization ran like a clunky old car trying to turn over in cold weather, but everyone was warming up to each other, and Burhendurur (and even Goldie, in three instances) had stopped every single fight between House members before they got too bad.

This whole thing worked.

It worked well.

Zolan had given Erick his first month financial review just the other week. Even though Erick was bleeding money like a strung-up cow in order to pay everyone’s wages and otherwise, he could survive another 2 years of paying for everything all on his own.

If he did a monster hunt every 2 days, once a year, and transferred all those rads to Mage Bank, House Benevolence could survive indefinitely. According to some very lucrative offers, handed to Zolan in the strictest of confidences, if Erick started selling [Reincarnation]s then he would never have to worry about the House or the Gate Network turning a profit, ever.

But having a Gate Network was going to be very profitable, eventually. Just needed about 6 more months to really get there. As people started to realize that Erick wasn’t scary at all, and that yes, he really was allied with all the major powers of the world, the amount of money coming out of the Gate Network would break even with how much money Erick was spending on the House.

When he opened the next land, though, the profit would come rolling in like an avalanche.

If he got the next Gate Set up and running, anyway.

Songli was dragging their heels. Tentatively, Erick might be opening up [Gate]s over there in the next week, but Zolan was still in talks with Holorulo regarding specifics. Might be a week! Might be a month. Or two or three. Erick had tried to be a part of those talks, but he scared off the people on Holorulo’s side of the table. Which was… What it was. Erick didn’t even know the people who Holorulo had sent, so it didn’t matter to him to miss that meeting, which was odd.

Holorulo hadn’t sent anyone whom Erick had known.

At the current rate, Erick might be opening up a [Gate] to Spur, next.

But that was for later! For today, Erick had nothing to do, except for what he wanted to do.

Erick smiled to himself, saying, “I want to have more days like this.”

- - - -

“So it’s time to learn some Time Magic,” Erick said, sitting alone in the middle of his Gate warehouse.

He had temporarily banished Poi and Teressa off to the house to do something else, and though Kiri desperately wanted to be let in on this lesson, she, too, was banished. Well… ‘Banished’ was a harsh word. Erick had asked them to stay away, and so they did.

But it was definitely a command, no matter the wording.

And now it was time to meet a god.

Erick sat back in a chair, relaxing his mind wide, his mana sense flowing outward—

And suddenly the world was a fractal stained glass window, and nothing moved anywhere, except for everything still moving all at once. Erick knew, somehow, that he was outside time, and yet… He wasn’t outside of time at all.

Another Erick stepped out of that fractal mess, though he was clearly the God of The End and Time.

“Hello, Phagar,” Erick said. “It took me a while to get around to this. I hope the offer still stands.”

With an easy voice that was exactly Erick’s, but different since it came from someone else, Phagar said, “Of course the offer still stands.” Phagar sat down in a chair that mirrored Erick’s, saying, “It’s better to approach this after settling many of your mortal worries, anyway. Any idea where you would like to start?”

For all his godly nature, Phagar was quite pleasant and calm to be around; an easy talker and listener.

But Erick wasn’t sure where to begin, so he offered, “At the beginning?”

Phagar gave a small smile, saying, “The Beginning and the End are often connected in Time Magic, so that’s the first thing to learn. But as for something useful? There are a large handful of concepts you should try to understand before you start putting those concepts together, so I’ll go through the whole thing once.

“There are easy Time Magics. There are difficult Time Magics.

“Then, there are Wizard-level Time Magics, which fall outside of the realm of simple categorization, because for some people they are easy, and for some they are hard.

“But before all that, there is Elemental Time, upon which all Time Magic is based. Yes, there is an Elemental Time. That is the first secret. Perhaps the largest.

“Easy magics are relegated to moderately speeding up or slowing down your own passage of time, or the passage of time for another. [Haste], for oneself. [Slow], as you have experienced with your own Ice Magic experiments. [Stop], as with your Ice Magic again.

“[Haste] requires clearance from me to learn, but since you have that, you could try and likely achieve that spellwork as soon as I explain how it works.

“[Haste] is achieved through the realization that Time is a parameter like gravity. It is not achieved through Elemental Fire, or anything like that. Instead, if you look at Elemental Ice, and you see how Slow and Stop work, then you should be able to understand Elemental Time, and through the grasping of that idea, you can achieve [Haste].

“Coincidentally, if you happen to speed up yourself, you will find that everything feels lighter. If you start moving really fast, then you could break other things just by touching them, but you will likely have broken yourself, if you go too fast. Making another version of [Haste] with some stabilization magics to remove that foible and allow yourself to properly move once again. Or, you could just use an Elemental Body while [Haste]d, and avoid that trouble altogether.

“Conversely, if you [Slow] someone, they will experience a heaviness.

“And while Slowing your enemies is always useful, [Haste] is not nearly as useful as a normal mage would think, for the Script Second still applies even in faster time, so unless one has a fair bit of experience with manual casting, or if they’re good with a sword and that sword can withstand accelerated time, then [Haste] is somewhat useless for most mages.

“This caveat doesn’t apply to you, but it must still be said.

“As a note: All Time Magic is magic cast upon a contained area. Never try to cast Time Magic upon ‘the area outside of myself’, or something equally nonsensical. It would be like trying to cast a magic without having enough mana to cast that magic; it would fail.

“Or, you could die. Either or, really.

“Moving on.

“Difficult Time Magics are applications of Elemental Time upon oneself in such a way as to travel one’s soul and mind through one’s own world line into the past. This application of Time Magic is completely removed from the physical world of Particle Magic, so slowness and gravity and speed don’t matter.

“As an example of this magic is known as [Return].

“This is what I did for you at Last Shadow’s Feast, returning you to your subjective world of 5 minutes ago. I say ‘subjective world’, because you were already under heavy time dilation while inside the Shadow’s Feast barrier, so those ‘five minutes’ of time I gave you were in fact only 15 real seconds.

“15 real seconds costs a lot. The reasons are manifold, from the cost of paradoxes to the stress on the soul that needs to be compensated for, to many other smaller factors. The cost of [Return] increases rapidly for anything over 10 seconds.

“[Return] is just as much Soul Magic as it is Time Magic, and since this level of self-magic is so dangerous, most people never achieve this. It is along the same difficulty as learning [Teleport].

“You managed to brute force Remaking [Teleport] because you have Ophiel, and he could cast that magic for you, but using [Return] requires a soul and a world line attached to that soul. Ophiel has no soul of his own right now; all he has is yours. You could always try some Wizardry there, but I would caution against that. Ophiel would likely gain a soul if you tried that with him, and thus you would lose him as a summon.

“If you tried this with Yggdrasil, you would run into that Divine Seal on your soul, and likely just hurt yourself.

“Skipping forward in time is similarly difficult, if you want to actually skip forward in time. For example: if you don’t want to physically sleep, but you know you need to, you could [Onward] and find yourself waking up from a good night’s sleep.

“If you, however, just want to go forward in time, you can [Slow] yourself and watch the world go by.

“As a side effect, for those who are not immortal, [Slow]ing oneself is a great way to extend one’s lifespan, though you do miss out on life; it’s a tradeoff. As another note, using [Haste] too much could add virtual years to every decade of regular use, and for non-immortals, this is a problem.

“It shouldn’t be a problem for you, as you are immortal now.

“And then we have the Wizard-level Time Magics. There are a few well known examples of this, and we can focus on those for now.

“The first is moving around through time, outside of your worldline guide. [Return]ing to an event a thousand years ago, or [Onward]ing to a thousand years in the future, without actually experiencing that intervening time.

“The second is moving around through time, cheaply. I list cheaper costs and outside-one’s-worldline separately, because they are, though there is a lot of overlap.

“The third is ignoring paradoxes. The classic example of a paradox is that, if you move through time and kill your mother before you are born, then this will unmake you. A proper Paradox Wizard will be able to make themselves exist outside of time, and thus they are immune to this effect. Normal mages can be made paradox proof but it is not an easy process, though it does get easier with more time and more paradox proofing. This type of Time Wizardry is why the ‘Paradox-Creation-Destruction’ split has ‘Paradox’ as part of that trio of Wizard types. Paradoxing is a major part of Wizardry.

“You’re already far on your way to being paradox proof.

“And then there is the fourth magic, the skill that you are actually most familiar with: ‘Making things always be that way’, otherwise known as Establishing. There is no codified magic for this ability, as there is with [Return] or [Onward], or the idea of Paradoxing, for Establishing is strictly a Wizard thing.

“There are a few Establishing-type frameworks present inside Spatial Magics, but that’s like saying a full grown tree is the same as a splinter from that tree; they’re not the same at all.

“You’ve Established things many times already, from the rune of [Renew] to making your Elemental Body be Elemental Benevolence instead of Elemental Light, to Ophiel and Yggdrasil gaining mana even though they shouldn’t have mana. You’ve even done some Establishing for your apprentice, and that guildmaster’s progeny, with their own [Familiar]s.

“And those are the basic magics of Time.” Phagar finished with, “If you would accept a suggestion, I recommend that you stick to the smaller applications of Time Magic. You are very good at Establishing, but Establishing is rather dangerous and I wouldn’t recommend you go doing that too much. You might find yourself suddenly having been born a woman all this time, or other such oddities, and that gets messy.”

Phagar stopped talking.

And Erick had about a thousand thoughts about all of that.

Erick rapidly said, “Thank you for explaining everything all at once. I can go through all that on my own time, later…” But there were still a fuck-ton of questions! Erick asked the first one to come to mind, “Ophiel and Yggdrasil are Paradoxes? How?”

“Both of your [Familiar]s will become real people one day.” Phagar said, “Much like how you used [Death’s Approach] to steal from your own future mana generation, you have Established the same sort of power inside Ophiel and Yggdrasil. You have made [Familiar]s which you absolutely plan on becoming real one day, and… Everything sort of came about from that fact.” He added, “As another note: That’s how [Death’s Approach] works... Somewhat. Go ahead and figure that one out when you want to, as well; it’s okay to steal from your own future, and to help other people take from their own, but don’t try taking other people’s future generation. Rozeta doesn’t like that.”

“Okay—” Erick filed that away for later, then he latched onto the other massive thing Phagar had said. “There’s Elemental Time!? But first: How does that relate to space— Or Spatial Magic! You already know of the connection between space and time because of the gravity thing you just mentioned— All this time! You already knew?! About space and time? I mean— I knew! But no one else on Veird ever thinks to connect the two—” Erick paused. “No… People know. You know. Some of your clergy knows?”

“Some of my people know,” Phagar nodded, saying, “Most of my clergy accepts the Time Magic I give them and they’re never able to replicate those spells because they lack both my clearance, and the knowledge of how Time and space are connected. Mostly, though, I have a lock on Time Magic, because Time Magic is among the most dangerous magics out there. Wizards are usually able to exempt themselves from that restriction though, either by proclivity or chance. You already have, many times already.”

“If there is Elemental Time…” Erick narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. “Is there Elemental Space— No. There’s Spatial Magic but that’s just deciding how things had happened in the past to alter the present. Spatial Magic is Time Magic, but in a different way?” He frowned, and looked to Phagar. “Is it?”

Phagar leaned back, saying, “I see Spatial Magic more as ‘I changed this thing in the past without actually going into the past’, sort of thing. It’s not really Establishing, but… It could be. It’s one of the easiest applications of Establishing, and a lot of people are more than capable of this small Wizardry, when it’s used in small ways.

“But really… Spatial Magic, to me, is more an application of Force Magic. You are physically shifting the past rather than actually going to the past yourself… But then again, it’s not really ‘forceful’ Force magic at all.” Phagar hummed. “Spatial Magic is an application of Elemental Force, and Elemental Time, yes, but most people don’t even try to use Elemental Time in anything that they do. Elemental Time likes to hide and work without being known. Pure Time Magic has little to no Elemental Force, and very rarely Forces anything into any sort of position.”

So that was a large bit of philosophy.

Erick would probably be digesting those small words for a very, very long time.

“… Back to gravity and time.” Erick asked, “Those two should be more related than what I’ve seen? I’ve never seen a Slowed thing look heavier? … I have also never cast the spell upon myself.”

He should [Slowing Bolt] himself and see how it made him feel.

He probably should have done that long before now.

“Well… That’s complicated.” Phagar said, “There are quite a few knock-on effects to stepping outside of one’s normal experience of time, either going faster or slower. It’s harder to breathe, mainly, unless you shift time in a space beyond your soul boundary, and even then you can’t sustain such an effect for too long unless you bring along a [Cleanse] to clean up the bad air you produce. Go way too fast and you can’t even see, for light might not reach your body fast enough, though you can overcome this with a good mana sense. Also, you’ve never actually experienced your [Slowing Bolt] yourself. Give it a try when we’re done.”

“… But increasing one’s weight with a [Gravity Ward] doesn’t cause the Slow effect, does it?”

“It does, actually. But it’s very minor. Hardly noticeable.” Phagar said,

Erick felt himself falling deep into his memories of highschool physics lessons and youtube videos, trying to remember everything he could. He came upon his next question fast enough, but he knew he had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe he’d figure it out later. He began, “As an effective Light Elemental, when using my former [Greater Lightwalk], I effectively weighed nothing. Why was I not under a constant [Haste] effect?” Erick added, “Or a [Slow] effect? Subjective time moves slower the faster you go, right?”

“Elemental Time is rather sticky. It gets everywhere, even where you think it wouldn’t be, because everywhere is subject to time in some capacity.” Phagar smiled, saying, “Time was one of the ancient functions of gods and Wizards in the Old Cosmology; to establish a time zone and maintain everything in that zone under the same experience.” Phagar said, “But on a smaller, more direct scale, there’s a lot of Time Magic in everything everyone does on Veird. Spatial Magic is a big one; those spells cause small paradoxes every time someone travels a thousand kilometers in less time than it takes for reality to recognize the change. For a brief moment, when looking at the whole of the world, a person is effectively in two places at once. Gravity Magic is another thing filled with Time Magic. There’s an Elemental Time aspect to Fate Magic, too, and your Elemental Benevolence has a lot of Time-like aspects.” He said, “But the simpler, more correct reason why using [Greater Lightwalk] does not instantly send you to the far, far future —because going as fast as light would make your subjective time slow down a lot— is because Elemental Light is not physical light.”

“… Oh. That’s… Duh—” Erick moved on. “I’m still having trouble understanding that ‘Elemental Time’ is a thing. I thought Time Magic would just be another working of Elemental Force, like Spatial Magic? Why have I not heard of Elemental Time before?”

Phagar nodded. “Because I and my clergy go around and ensure that time remains uncompromised.”

“… Ah.” Erick recalled Rozeta talking about how those first years of Veird in the New Cosmology were lost to them because someone had fucked them all to hell with Time Magic. “This is a big deal, isn’t it; my learning of Time Magic. Here I was thinking I would use this magic to simply get eight easy hours of sleep into a ten minute period, every night, but it’s a lot bigger than that. It’s almost funny how much… bigger it is than I thought it would be.”

Erick was trying to defuse his sudden worry with humor.

It wasn’t working for him, or for Phagar.

But Phagar was far past worry; he was at acceptance, as he always seemed to be. This made sense now that Erick thought of it. Phagar was simply everywhere he needed to be, when he needed to be there, and if he wasn’t there, then he wasn’t needed.

Phagar softly said, “I would not help you learn this magic if I did not trust you. But I trust you, Erick. I trusted you all the way back when I offered you my Championship so long ago, and that trust has never been misplaced, but now I can actually speak openly about these deeper secrets of this world. You’ve proven yourself, Erick, and not just to me. To everyone. Beyond any doubt, you have proven yourself, and you deserve all the good things that your proof brings you. Time Magic is just one of the smaller, larger ways to prove that we see you, and we’re glad you’re here.”

“Ahh…” Erick felt a bit weird accepting such a compliment from Phagar, somewhat because this whole conversation was sort of like looking himself in a mirror and giving himself a pep talk, but also because for him, his own morality had never been in doubt— Well. That was simply untrue. He had had a lot of trouble back in the beginning, when he fell to Veird, when he was learning that he actually needed to kill certain things to make life better for everyone. That seemed like so, so long ago, though. But that set Erick to wondering… He asked, “You offered me that Championship because I was going to End a lot of bad things, eh?”

Phagar smiled. “Not everything is set in adamantium, but some things are more solid than others. I knew you would be an asset, but I wasn’t quite sure how. I was prepared to offer my Championship to help achieve those goals, but a single [Death’s Approach] seemed to be all the help you needed.” Phagar said, “As for all the help you might need next, if all you want is eight hours of easy sleep inside a 10 minute time period, then I am glad to help in that way, too.

“I suggest [Haste] and [Ward] with a large enough Variable Cost Variable Effect for the sleeping spell. [Ward] is necessary for that, because you don’t want to tear up your bed with a casual pillow flip in the middle of the night, or something like that.

“I suggest you make another VCVE personal [Haste] spell, in order to have a version for use in battle.” Phagar said, “That one will take some getting used to so that you don’t accidentally break bones trying to do something as simple as open a door… Though with your Constitution and [Unbreakable Form] you would have to be moving quite fast in order to harm yourself.”

“Heh… Thank you, Phagar.”

“Anytime! And I mean that most literally.” Phagar said, “When you feel like doing something besides just sleeping in, let me know, and we can move on to the next lessons.”

Phagar stood up from his chair and vanished into the fractal world beyond, like a thousand reflections of Erick himself moving just out of frame.

Erick’s mana sense contracted, no longer supported by the divine.

Time resumed.

And wow! Had that been a talk!

Erick’s mind whirred as he just sat there in his empty warehouse, thinking about what he was going to do next, and about everything Phagar had told him of Elemental Time, and Time Magic, and Paradox Wizardry.

And then he called in Ophiel to help pull some sounds out of some magic.

- - - -

[Slowing Bolt] was Erick’s only spell that he could point to and say, ‘this is made with Elemental Time’.

He had made the spell long ago, back when he was at Tenebrae’s floating castle, but he certainly hadn’t intended to use Elemental Time at all. He had just listened to the mana and worked how the mana—

Ah. Okay.

Yeah.

He was probably using some Elemental Time, rather unintentionally.

Whatever the case, ‘Slow’ was a normal enough status effect that one could pull out of Mana Altering for Ice, if one listened well enough. Status effects weren’t very useful magics, though, for everything resisted them. He had used [Slowing Bolt] a bit in Songli, but mostly, he hadn’t gotten into too many fights where such a spell would both actually work, and be the correct spell for the moment. Thus, his only real ‘Elemental Time’ spell languished, going unnoticed for what it was until today.

Slowing Bolt, instant, long range, 15 mana + Variable

An ethereal bolt of mist inexorably strikes a target, inflicting Slow for a Variable length of time.

Very high Variable costs may inflict Stop.

He had made this spell with Elemental Mercy and the Slow that he had plucked out of Elemental Ice, producing a sound that was clear and soft, and very much non-damaging. [Slowing Bolt] didn’t do any damage at all because Erick had managed to fully extract Slow from Elemental Ice.

In light of this new information, Erick went through that whole process again to try and figure out what he had done.

Holding out a hand, Erick channeled mana through [Slowing Bolt].

Out came the sound of stillness. He handed that sound off to Ophiel.

He channeled Elemental Mercy. This was the sound of softness.

The sound of Elemental Ice was one of hardness and solidity.

So taking hardness and adding softness… Somehow gave the sound of Elemental Time?

Or at least the ‘slowing’ version of Elemental Time.

Erick went back to [Slowing Bolt] and began channeling more and more mana through the spell. As a white plume of power radiated cold from his palm and a chill raced up his arm like he had stuck his hand in an arctic wind. It wasn’t enough to hear Time, or anything close to what could be that. Erick channeled harder. The plume turned to a fountain of frozen intent. Ice frosted off of Erick’s fingertips, forming mana icicles radiating away from the plume—

Ah. Too cold. He stopped.

He shook out his hand, returning warmth to his body as he scattered flakes of frost to the ground. Those flakes were made of magic, though, so they soon vanished back into the manasphere like so much broken spellwork.

“Still sounds like stillness,” Erick said to himself, and to Ophiel and Yggdrasil. “Let’s move on to the next spell; it’s a gravity one that I also made a while ago.”

Gravity Strainer, instant, medium range, 65 mana, 1 hour duration. 

Conjure a large, freely moldable space where specific objects turn near-weightless and fall to a designated point.

When stretched with a specific intent that was already baked into the basic spell, [Ward] could be transformed into [Gravity Strainer]. Variations of this spell was what sewermasters the world over (mostly under) used to easily and automatically pluck rads out of sewer system settling tanks, while [Cleanse]ing at the same time, obviously. Proper sewer management was about not getting shit everywhere.

And apparently Gravity Magic was a bit of Time Magic, too?

“Like, duh,” Erick mostly said to himself. “Gravity Magic and Time Magic obviously go together very well. Spatial Magic is just… An offshoot of Time and Force Magic.” He mumbled, “Lotta time magic in everything… Which is different from how Benevolence can appear like everything else? Not sure. One is the mortar that holds everything together, the other is differently colored bricks… Maybe.”

Benevolence and Time seemed like polar opposites of one another… Maybe? Yes. According to the way Phagar had explained it, they were different. Erick moved past the brief, yet terrifying idea that he had somehow made Elemental Benevolence that could work like Elemental Time…

Well. Actually. He did, a bit, do exactly that. What with the ‘Establishing’, and all that. Bricks of Benevolence could work just like the mortar of Elemental Time, if worked correctly… Sure?

Sure.

Anyway.

Erick channeled [Gravity Strainer] in one hand.

A solid white glow emanated from his palm and rapidly formed a ball of light around his hand. Tendrils of light radiated from his palm to the edge of the sphere. It sounded like…

Erick wasn’t sure.

It made a weird sound but it was too close to the ‘delineation sound’ that [Ward] usually made. He handed the sound of [Gravity Ward] off to an Ophiel, and then he channeled plain [Ward]. It was the sound of delineation. Simple stuff; Erick had heard that spellwork a thousand times before—

“Ah!” Erick had it. “It’s like this.”

Erick channeled Mana Altering in his other hand, while flickering through several other spells in his other hand. As he went through his known spells he handed them off to Ophiel—

He heard it.

In between [Gravity Strainer] minus [Ward], [Teleport] minus Elemental Force, [Slowing Bolt] minus Mercy, it was there. There was some in [Teleport] and [Blink]. It was even in [Swift Movement]. Erick spent a good four minutes with that Health Cost ability, trying to understand what he was hearing through all the Health…

There was a sound.

Erick had heard it many times before, but he had never touched upon that sound. Not directly. He had never needed to, he supposed. He didn’t really need to right now, either, but with this, he could actually get a good night’s sleep—

Erick laughed a little. “I sound like Poi! I’m going to have to make that joke to him.”

In his right hand, Erick channeled the sound of Elemental Time. It was a wispy sort of sound; barely there and slipping sideways with every attempt to truly hear the magic. But when Erick relaxed, and when he opened his mana sense, he could hear it. The sound of Phagar approaching. The sound of a beginning made out of an End, while also being The End.

It was, a little bit, the sound made by Raidu Terror Peaks’ when his soul was being ripped apart by the soul sunderer for his crimes against Songli. It was the sound of mana, flowing.

A river that was not a river at all.

Back and forth.

Here and there.

Hot and cold, but only because both ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ were variations of the singular phenomenon of temperature, and one’s place already on the scale.

Elemental Time was in the manasphere, everywhere Erick looked. It was what allowed people to look backward in time, and also forward. Elemental Time had always been here. Erick just didn’t have the Sight to know the river for what it truly was, until now.

Instinctively, Erick knew he could fall into that river and swim with or against the current, but now that he saw the water, he knew he could also pluck some of that out and drink deep. Falling in would be terrifying, and so Erick left that task for another day. For now, he grabbed some Time, and had a sip—

Everything slowed.

Ophiel’s wings moved slowly, taking multiple seconds for a single flap. Beyond the windows, the leaves of Yggdrasil waved in a molasses wind. Erick moved a little, and instantly noticed he was as light as a feather. Breathing was hard. Air moved through his lungs like a cold fog that only warmed when it was inside of him. He exhaled that fog, forming minuscule swirls in the stillness of the warehouse air.

Erick took a step forward and watched as Ophiels’ eyes lagged behind him by less than half a second. But there had been a lag. Noticeable, too.

Some familiar blue boxes appeared.

Special Quest Complete!

You have remade a Basic Spell.

Since you do not already have Haste, here you go:

Haste 1, instant, self, 50 mana

Double your subjective time. Lasts 1 minute.

Erick smiled.

And then he started playing around with moving in this new, odd sort of way. Jumping up and down, and moving left to right, Erick held out his hands as though he was riding in a car, feeling the wind on his palm. He knifed the air apart as he moved quicker than he ever had before; even when using [Hunter’s Instincts].

It was kinda fun to play around with new magic!

A lot of fun, actually. Erick laughed, and he heard himself laugh through Ophiel’s senses, like he was a hyperactive chipmunk chortling to a staccato beat. It was so freaky, he laughed more.

Magic was wonderful!

Eventually, Erick decided he had had enough fun playing around, and he needed the tenth level of this spell, so he power leveled it. Strangely enough, casting [Haste] upon himself multiple times did not multiply the effect.

Haste X, instant, self, 50 mana

Double your subjective time. Lasts 10 minutes.

He could make that into a [10 hours in 10 minutes] spell, for sure. Might take multiple attempts, though. But first, Erick returned to the sound of Elemental Time, and went in the other direction.

Erick sipped the river of time in a different sort of way.

Everything turned heavy as a weight descended upon him and all of his movements seemed sluggish, while the entire rest of the world seemed fast. Ophiels twittered in super high notes as they danced around, playing with Erick like hyperactive birds, and he laughed like a rumbling mountain; ponderous and slow—

Special Quest Complete!

You have remade a Basic Spell.

Since you do not already have Slow, here you go:

Slow 1, instant, self, 50 mana

Halve your subjective time. Lasts 1 minute.

Erick did not like this spell at all, though it would be useful to have in order to use against others. He power leveled [Slow], and then he canceled it.

Slow X, instant, self, 50 mana

Halve your subjective time. Lasts 10 minutes.

He had only just started with Time Magic, but Erick felt he had a good beginner’s grasp of the subject. It seemed easy enough to turn either of these spells into magic that would affect others, though Erick suspected that such a spell would be subject to the normal Health-based denials, since this sort of magic was status effect magic. Erick tested out [Haste] and [Force Bolt] to see if he was correct.

Erick conjured a [Fairy Item] dummy made with a thin cover of ice and warm water insides. His theory was that it should melt and break apart rather fast when Hasted, though he had never done this before; He could only guess. Today was full of fun little magics!

Anyway.

Erick pointed at the dummy and joined [Haste] with [Force Bolt].

A dot of flowing white magic struck the dummy—

Like a video sped up to double speed, a crack formed on the bottom of the dummy and rapidly spread up and out, but the water inside was already rapidly flowing out of the hole in the bottom—

The whole conjuring vanished into so much scattered white glows as a blue box appeared.

Haste Other, instant, close range, 55 mana

Attempt to double the subjective time of a target for 10 minutes.

Erick hummed. ‘Attempt to double’ was rather appropriate for a ‘Health negates this’ sort of spell. It certainly didn’t read as well as [Slowing Bolt] read, though; ‘inflicting Slow for a Variable length of time’ seemed like a higher application of this working, for sure.

His [Haste Other] was probably a rather shitty version.

Erick moved on.

Now if he was correct, the combination of [Ward] and [Haste] would create a fast space inside where time flowed twice as fast. Such a simple working would likely not be good enough for a sleeping spell, but Erick had to start somewhere, and to make sure the magic actually worked like he thought it would.

Would there be a problem at the edge, and an insurmountable barrier to cross? Or would there just be some gentle shearing upon trying to cross from normal time to fast time? Erick guessed the latter.

Tomorrow, he could try for a Variable Cost Variable Effect working.

But for now, Erick linked [Haste] to [Ward], and cast the spell.

For five meters in every direction, the air shifted. A faint white wind formed a translucent barrier all around. Inside, the world seemed fine. Outside, though, Erick watched the molasses wind play in Yggdrasil’s canopy, gently moving the green sea above like so many slow waves.

An expected blue box appeared.

Hasted Area, instant, close range, 100 mana

Double the subjective time in a large area for 10 minutes. Crossing the barrier might break the spell.

Erick didn’t even get to test out the second part of that blue box, for while Yggdrasil was here and experiencing a bit of dissonance, Ophiel was having an experience. The little guy was both inside and outside of the area of effect. The Ophiel on Erick’s shoulder yelped while the little guys outside of the barrier crowed, their voices seeming unnaturally low and weird. The Ophiel outside instantly moved inward, crossing the barrier, breaking the spell with all the ease of popping a soap bubble.

Time resumed as normal, and Ophiel began chirping about how everything had been really weird for a moment! Why had everything been weird!

Erick smiled and patted the little guy, telling him, “It was just some Time Magic. No need to worry.”

Yggdrasil spoke, “It was weird, father.”

Erick looked at the big guy’s [Scry] eye, asking, “Did I catch you in the effect?”

“No. But I felt you move weird. Time Magic is weird.”

“Weird bad? Or weird weird?”

“Weird weird.”

Erick smiled a little, saying, “Weird weird is fine. If it turns into weird bad, let me know, okay?”

“I will!”

Ophiel chirped.

Erick told Ophiel, “You’re probably going to have to get used to that, but I can pull all of you inside while I sleep if it’s too much trouble.”

Ophiel chirped again, accepting that safety came before comfort.

Erick smiled, and then he broke the [Hasted Area] spell the Script had created in his soul, for this wasn’t exactly what he wanted out of that magic.

He also watched his core while he broke the spell. A familiar sensation of crumbling took hold inside of him and his core gained a minuscule crack that was barely more than mar of shadow inside the perfect, Benevolent sphere beside his heart. To be sure he was seeing it correctly, Erick broke apart [Haste Other], too—

And up, there was another small mar, on the other side of his core.

Well then! He could probably fix that damage with a bit of accreting, and maybe he could even try making [Haste Other] again.

Erick began accreting like he usually did; holding his aura open, sealing out all other mana as he flooded his aura with his own mana, and then cycling that mana back inside. Sparks of lightning gathered on his aura’s exterior surface and flowed inward, into his body and into his core. Gradually, slowly, white lightning filled in the mar inside his core—

The second his core was repaired, Erick knew he could try to combine his magic again, and that the Script would help him make that spell a permanent part of his soul. Only people with cores got to benefit from this method; if Erick had broken this spell while in his Normal Form, he couldn’t repair the damage, nor could he reduce the cooldown on Script assistance. There were just so many small nuances to how the Script helped people, and how one could actually ‘game the system’, as Jane had once put it, but only when one knew how the system worked and what normal magic looked like in the first place.

Erick smiled wide, thinking about how far he had come since he and Jane had fallen to Veird.

He tried making [Haste Other] again—

Nothing happened.

No blue boxes?

Erick tried again, striking the ice-water dummy with another combo of [Haste] and [Force Bolt]…

Nothing.

Ah…

“Maybe the Script sees that it tried to help me once already.” Erick frowned a little. “So that means I have to go outside the Script when I break the spell? So it’s not tracked? That’s probably it.”

Eh!

Whatever.

There were a lot of different ways to go with this spell and all of Erick’s current ideas could stand to percolate for a while.

- - - -

Dipping his toes into Time Magic didn’t take much time at all, and so, Erick still had almost all the rest of the day free. First he went back home to gather Teressa and Kiri. After explaining what he wanted to do next, they were both interested.

A lightning portal led the way to their next destination.

The Benevolence research tower.

- - - -

Located down one of the many hallways past the atrium in the center of the house, the entrance to the Benevolence research tower was one of House Benevolence’s more active areas. A good eleven people were already present, this early in the morning, including Tasar, who appeared in a flicker of black-green magic just down the way.

“Good morning,” Tasar said, walking closer.

“Morning,” Erick said, smiling—

Ah. A while ago, Erick had promised Tasar that he would tell her how to make a [Familiar] with their own mana pool. Now that he knew how that actually worked, he wondered if Tasar would actually want to know. Erick had made both Ophiel and Yggdrasil through rituals, knowing and planning on the fact that both would eventually become real. Since they would ‘eventually become real’, they had a theoretical mana pool waiting for them in the future, and so, Erick had Established that they could access that future mana right now.

Mana was rather full of possibilities like that.

But Erick doubted that Tasar would actually want to make something that she knew would become real.

Back when Erick had told the royalty of Stratagold that he was immortal, Tasar had taken Erick aside and tried to give him some good advice about his [Familiar]s, and Ophiel in particular. Now that he was immortal, he would watch Ophiel grow into a real person, and chances were that Ophiel would be both the first and the last of his kind, and that he would be mortal. [Familiar]s rarely turned into real, thriving species. Eventually, Erick would lose a child that he had watched grow into a very, very old man, and there was nothing that he could do to stop that.

Tasar had done that exact thing once before. Once was more than enough. Never again would she make a summon that would become a real person.

But now, Erick had [Reincarnation], so even if Ophiel’s form didn’t function long term, he had a solution to that problem, too.

—still smiling, still greeting Tasar, Erick asked, “Do you want to learn how to make a summon that has their own mana, Tasar?”

Tasar’s eyes went wide, and yes, she did.

But Erick continued, “Thanks to Phagar I think I know why my summons have mana.” His smile waned, and he said, “If you want to know, I can tell you and then help you make one yourself, but it will be difficult for you. It’s nothing untoward, but it is a choice; one that I know you have already said no to.”

Tasar’s sudden joy gutted like a fire turned to ice. Eventually, she thawed a little, deciding, “I would like to know the choices, either way.”

“We’ll talk later.”

Tasar gave a small nod. Behind Erick, Kiri’s eyeridges were high on her head. She wanted to know what was going on. He would tell her, too; probably both of them together, actually. Teressa had a mild curiosity, but she could take or leave a whole conversation about [Familiar]s and not really care one way or the other.

Erick turned back to the research tower.

Beyond a large archway made of angular, Art Deco-like lightning reliefs, lay what was essentially a bunch of individual laboratories as one would encounter in any proper Mage Guild the world over; spaces for people to experiment with small scale magics. The main room ahead was a large-ish gathering space, like a courtyard with multiple levels ringing an open center. On those levels were bunches of doors leading off to other areas. Some rooms behind those doors were larger than others. Some doors led to library rooms and office spaces, though there wasn’t much in any of those right now. The whole tower had an empty sort of feeling to it, much like the rest of House Benevolence, even though there were people here and working hard already.

A different tower held the Office of Magic. Over there was where Aisha held all the experiments with turning iron into a viable magical metal. Tasar had helped a bit with that, since she was the one who had invented [Condense Oxygen] and helped turn that into a cure for Wrought Rot, but there was a long way to go to solving that problem, and the Gemslicers, the ones who actually made the cute for Wrought Rot, were not talking to Erick.

But all that magical iron stuff was for another day.

Today was a day of working on Benevolence, and others were already here.

As soon as Erick stepped into this space one of the doors on the second floor swung open. Aisha stood on the other side, along with three others.

With an excited, happy tone, Aisha gripped the railing and called out, “Are you finally coming to experiment?”

“I am!” Erick walked forward, saying, “I’m finally out of pressing crises, though there are still longer term crises, of course.”

Aisha smiled. “Of course! Come on up! We might have finally gotten the elemental condenser truly work—”

A small explosion popped behind Aisha, briefly backlighting her and the other three with multicolor lightning. As the lightning dissipated, a riot of plant life sprawled out of the room like the sudden appearance of a jungle made of vines and ferns and bamboo.

Erick’s heart briefly beat hard, but the feeling passed. Nothing had happened.

Just a minor Benevolence explosion.

Aisha groaned in disappointment. Her employees had various other disappointed looks upon their faces. From inside the room, Erick heard someone yell about how it was all working just fine. As Erick walked forward, another person yelled back about how it obviously wasn't fine, you fucking fairy fucker, and this was probably all a plot by Ar’Cosmos to fuck over everything they were trying to make.

Aisha scowled at that voice, yelling back, “We wouldn’t even have the elemental condenser if it weren’t for them!”

Someone inside complained that they still didn’t have the condenser, because Ar’Cosmos was fucking it all up!

Erick sighed as he walked up the stairs. Aisha was already inside, clearing away plants with [Blight], radiating blackening magic into the air and dissolving every single plant in the area. Erick had seen this explosive outcome happen five times already, and this sixth time was no different. Luckily, [Blight] didn’t affect eternal stonewood, so this spell was the best way to get rid of unwanted plant growth. As Erick stepped into sight of the room, he watched as Aisha began flowing [Cleanse] out into the space, evaporating brown and black gunk into so much thick air.

As the goop evaporated it revealed two loudly yelling people standing next to the single table in the room. Erick ignored the small fight for Aisha was already on it, separating the iron wrought human man from the red-skinned orcol man; Riam and Clavog, from Stratagold and Ar’Cosmos respectively. They had been the arguing pair from before. They always argued, because both of them were very good at their fields of elemental magical study, but they had been raised in very different environments. Clavog knew all about how magic was supposed to work. Raim knew all about how magic actually worked.

Or at least that was their usual refrain.

On the table was the source of their arguments and their current project; an elemental condenser. It was a series of multicolor-metal parallel tubes going up and down, looking a little bit like a pipe organ, or a bunch of meter-long crayons in a bundle. Those metal pipes led to a collection plate in the base of the machine. The inside of every single pipe, each made of a different magical metal, were fully inscribed with runes.

The machine drew in air, filtered mana inside that air, and condensed that mana into a solid crystal atop the collection plate. And it worked fine inside Ar’Cosmos. Inside that fairy land, this machine was how Fairy Moon had created a mana crystal, which she then had turned into a counting crystal so Erick could monitor his Stat growth when he was first accreting.

But it did not work well inside this Script-filled normal space.

It did not work well.

Erick asked, “It is still not working well?” He mana sensed over to the main condenser room, then came back, saying, “The others seem to be working… Minimally.”

Aisha said, “The others are still condensing what they are able to condense, but—”

Riam and Clavog finally realized that Erick was in the room with them.

Clavog instantly said, “This rusting shite tried turning up the volume!”

Riam rounded Clavog, saying, “It should have worked, dragon fucker!”

Erick stared at the offenders, saying, “Switch the machine back to minimal power, and do it right.”

Clavog pulled back his anger, trying to stuff it away into a void as he breathed long and slow. And then he resumed breathing normally. Riam did much the same.

Clavog turned to Riam, saying, “We’ll go slower.”

Riam scowled, then realized he was scowling and tried to shut that off. Through gritted teeth, he mumbled, “Slower, then.”

“Anyway!” Erick released his own displeasure as best he could and turned to Aisha, saying, “So yes. I have some time today to see how all this Benevolence research is going—” He turned back toward the elemental condenser, adding, “—and it seems to have hit a snag?”

Aisha walked forward, saying, “The main problem we’re having is the same problem we’ve always had with working new elements; there just isn’t enough of Benevolence to go around.”

Now that was a bit disturbing, actually.

And for multiple reasons.

Erick frowned a little, saying, “Even considering my mana production is still mostly in the Script, I’m always casting magic, and the Gates are right there, doing the same. I’ve been putting Benevolence-flavored mana into the manasphere for two months now and we’re at the epicenter of that output. Hullbreaker was putting out measurable amounts of Elemental Pirate all across the entire Letri Ocean after only 6 months.” He studied the elemental condenser, saying, “This thing should be able to condense more than it has.”

Riam exclaimed, “Exactly! That’s why I tried to turn it up!”

Clavog frowned at the smaller man.

Erick added, “But it obviously can’t. So why?”

Clavog furrowed his brows, slightly miffed, as he said, “Because this machine does not work well outside of Ar’Cosmos, as I have said multiple times to everyone—” He cut himself off. He continued, “That it is working at all means that there is Elemental Benevolence to be had, but— Even with the Hullbreaker example, we had thousands of these machines all over the Letri ocean looking for him. Any variations in production at all gave us a good idea of where to find the Wizard, but those machines were still attuned to minimal output. The machine cannot be improved, for the Script ties it down and prevents it from working properly!”

The elemental condenser was beyond Erick’s skill, but he hadn’t really tried to improve upon the design, either. He had no time for such a thing, and besides, his people here were already on the job. They had even managed to make some magic out of Benevolence.

Every single person in this room had made at least one Benevolence spell in the past month, since Erick had gotten House Benevolence up and running. Some of them had even managed to make small enchantments using those spells. A wand of [Benevolence Jolt]. A rod of [Benevolence Bomb]. A [Detect Benevolence] pair of goggles. Erick had copies of those spells from his subjects, and he had even found time to make versions of his own. There were obvious problems, though, because the spells other people made were very different from Erick’s own versions.

Benevolence Jolt, instant, long range, 55 mana

A bolt of benevolence strikes a target for <WIL effect>.

Benevolence Bomb, instant, long range, 502 mana

Launch a quick ball of benevolence that explodes on contact in a medium area for <2x WIL effect>.

Detect Benevolence, instant, medium range, 55 mana

Detect ongoing benevolence effects.

Benevolence Jolt, instant, long range, 7 mana

An ethereal bolt of benevolence inexorably strikes a target for <5x WIL effect>. <Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>

Benevolence Bomb, instant, long range, 73 mana

Launch a super quick ethereal missile of benevolence that explodes on contact in a large area, causing <10x WIL effect>. <Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>

Detect Benevolence, instant, medium range, 16 mana

Detect ongoing benevolence effects. <Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>

Whatever Erick was doing with Benevolence was so much further from what other people were doing with Benevolence, that when the facts of created spells were laid out in little blue boxes it was easy to see which ones belonged to Erick, and which ones had been made by everyone else. Even leaving the mana costs aside, that part of ‘<Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>’ was only present in Erick’s own magic.

Only one person had managed to get that second half of the ‘benevolence descriptor’ inside her spell box. That honor went to Aisha, but only because Erick had been working with her at the time to get her to make the spell. When Erick wasn’t present, no one else had managed to make the same magic.

And thus, the Benevolence research tower went back to square one, to reevaluate everything and see where they could improve their understanding of Benevolence.

Or maybe get a shortcut.

So, people talked to people.

Eventually, Mox and Aisha and Burhendurur spoke of old fights, and old Wizards, and Mox asked how Ar’Cosmos had managed to find Hullbreaker almost always before they had. That fact was one of her lingering questions about that time, and two days later Burhendurur, after talking with Erick, decided to let that secret out of the bag.

That conversation had led to this elemental condenser being here, today. This thing was supposed to be able to condense a particular element out of the air, making ‘essence chips’ of the chosen element, which could then be used to grant oneself the elemental body of the chosen element, or allow oneself to cast magic with those elements. And so, these chips were how anyone could ‘be in the room with Erick’ whenever they needed. Eventually, if production increased, a proper enchanter might be able to take those chips and make a suit of elemental armor out of them, allowing someone to actually gain that Elemental Body for themselves. With that Elemental Body in hand, they could then experiment with Benevolence to their heart’s content.

(Or, they could go the [Polymorph] route, and eat all those chips. This necessitated the creation of a benevolence slime, though, so that the user of that Familiar Form could actually eat and digest those chips, but the Benevolence dungeon was still on the drawing boards.)

There were problems with this condenser plan, though. Elemental condensers worked great in Ar’Cosmos. People there regularly used these machines in order to gather essence without going through the problems of making a dungeon and gathering essence through harvesting slimes. These essence condensers saved a lot of space in that way.

But they barely worked on Veird.

But, importantly, they did work! A little.

And so they tried using these machines. It was not working well. The volume produced by the machine was barely worth noting. A single chip of pure Benevolence a day, about the size of a gold coin, was about the same amount of Light Essence produced by a single light slime over its maturation cycle of 50 days.

They had about 10 of these machines working in the other rooms and they were getting a measurable amount of Benevolence Essence, but it had not been enough. A dungeon, working properly, would get the user the proper Elemental Body within a single day of slime production. So far, with their meager production, these people had made small, imperfect enchantments and small, imperfect spellwork.

It wasn’t enough.

Erick decided he would go visit the dungeon after this meeting, or however long this took, and try to make a Benevolence version of his [Kaleidoscopic Radiance]. It would probably be the only way to actually get that dungeon up and running, and to really give House Benevolence true access to its namesake.

Yes. That is what he would do later.

For now, he turned his thoughts back to the moment.

Ashia said, “This is the 15th confirmation in a long line of confirmations that undirected Benevolence causes plant growth, which is pretty great!” She glared at the two men who had been arguing, “That could have turned out very badly if your anger had caused that Benevolence to snap black. We still don’t know what actually causes that to happen.”

Riam shook his head, not believing Aisha’s warning. “It doesn’t snap black unless in the presence of an actual hostile force.”

Or if Erick decided it should, but he did not say that.

Clavog rolled his eyes, saying, “And you’re claiming not to be hostile! Preposterous!”

Erick interrupted the impending argument, saying, “Anyway! How are the prognostication efforts going?”

The iron man and the red orcol went silent.

Aisha said, “The talismans we’ve been able to make out of Benevolence Essence still allow me to glimpse the wall of problems coming in a hundred years, but not much more than that.”

Erick still hadn’t shown her inside his Gate Space yet, but then and there, he decided he would change that today, too.

Erick nodded, then began, “So we’re still at a bottleneck for actual Elemental Benevolence, and while we broadly know the larger applications, we still don’t know exactly what it does in smaller scenarios. So pick two people, Aisha, and we’re going into the Gate Space right now. You can see what the wall looks like for yourself.”

Aisha’s eyes went wide, and she wasn’t the only one. Instantly, everyone in the room was on an anticipatory edge. They all desperately wanted what Erick had just offered, but that just wasn’t going to happen. This was the first time he was actually offering to show them that space. Eventually, his Gate Space would be public access, for that was how he had constructed it to be, but not right now. Not until he knew the vulnerabilities of his Gate Space.

There was no way to really find that out, though, without inviting some people inside, and today was the day to invite some people inside.

Erick looked to Teressa, Kiri, and Tasar, saying, “And you’re all coming, too.”

Teressa seemed to relax with a quiet approval. She was ready to see the wall, too. Kiri was ready as well; Erick had not done much magic work with her in the last two months, and she absolutely wanted to see the Gate Space. He probably could have shown both of them the Gate Space long before now, but there just hadn’t been time. And now, there was time.

Tasar was the only real odd woman out, who was included just because she was here, but Erick felt he could trust her with this vulnerability.

He was pretty sure he could trust every single person in this room.

But only two of Aisha’s employees could join them.

Aisha made some rapid decisions, saying, “Raim. Clavog. Are you ready?”

The previously-fighting men were very ready.

Erick opened a [Gate] to the side of the room. Instead of sky or land or water appearing beyond the ring of lightning, it was a world of iridescent white, where a floating platform of white stone held a fountain burbling in the center, and a fractionally-sized Yggdrasil grew in the distance. A gentle breeze flowed out from the Gate Space and the elemental condenser, which had been reset to its lowest possible setting, began to chime and echo with the sound of Benevolence. Elemental Benevolence began to gather on the collection plate like growing bundles of sparks slowly settling down into a solid mass. Everyone in the room noticed this, of course, for the condenser chimed and tinkled as it worked.

But Erick was not leaving his Gate Space open and thus vulnerable to others while he wasn’t directly present. So he led the way into Benevolence and his people followed, some excited, some wary.

The Gate Space had changed a lot since its creation, but only in matters of size.

The floating white platform was the same columnar basalt design as before, except now it was a hundred meters across and some of the hexagonal stones had been replaced with dirt. Ferns and vines and sometimes small mushrooms grew from those loamy spaces, and especially where the fountain overflowed, pouring water into a channel in the platform, to flow out into space, to attach to Yggdrasil in the distance.

Yggdrasil looked like himself, but much smaller.

That fountain in the center was about twice as large as before. The outer rim was several meters in diameter, supporting a pool of water a good three meters deep. The stones that rose in the center supported a minor waterfall that fell into that pool, while a gentle pyre held in the air above that waterfall. That warm fiery space was shaped like the [Renew] rune, and the same runic design repeated everywhere inside the space, if one looked close enough.

Everyone was looking very closely at everything they could.

He was sure that soon enough, someone would recognize the spark of darkness that held in the very center of the land, inside the base of the waterfall. To Erick, it looked like an abyss and an open window into a certain dragon’s domain. That Dark dragon might actually gaze back, if he felt like it, but Erick didn’t look too closely, and Melemizargo was wherever he wanted to be, anyway.

Erick turned outward, to gaze upon the sky, away from Yggdrasil.

“Feels like the sky is about a kilometer away, or maybe only 850 meters.” Erick said, “It’s still growing at a steady rate. I have no idea why you can’t materialize more Benevolence outside.” And before Raim or Clavog actually spoke and suggested he leave a [Gate] open inside the condensing room, Erick added, “And I’m not leaving an opening to my Gate Space open when I’m not around. Speaking of which. Now that you are all inside—” With a flick of intent, Erick closed the opening. “—You can’t see the sky with the [Gate] open.”

His people briefly lost composure as he closed the [Gate], and they all realized that they were trapped in here, but then they all realized in their own, quick ways, that Erick wasn’t going to harm them. Kiri and Teressa recovered the quickest. Tasar and Aisha were a bit slower, but fast enough. Raim and Clavog didn’t recover until the sky started to shift. A gentle sound of distant thunder rumbled across the Gate Space as a flicker of brighter lightning created shadows upon the endless horizon.

Not a single person said a word as they all stared at the beyond.

Lightning flashed, and began to do more than that.

What appeared out of the heavens was exactly the same as the last time Erick had looked, only a few days ago. Lightning tangled upon itself and produced at least 47 dark spots that appeared in the distance. Some of those spots moved and joined with others, before coming back apart to become their own separate thing, so there might have been more than that, or maybe a few less. It had taken Erick a good hour of observation to actually understand that there were at least 47 problems on the horizon, so he doubted that anyone here was actually getting the full numerically-defined experience that he had, but that was fine.

Erick had no idea what any of the tangles actually meant, except for the one that was Bright Smile. Contrary to his first impression of that Carnage Dragon, Erick longer believed that she was a danger to everyone, or at least not a conventional danger. It was quite realistic to assume that Bright Smile would go on to conquer the Fairy World and raise everyone under her ideals, and that could be a problem…

But that was a problem for later.

“As you can see,” Erick began explaining, “The web of tangles is all rather distant, and if you really look, you can see that almost all of them happen around the hundred year mark. It’s like a spider web that is deep at a specific layer, and not thick anywhere else. But if you look over there—” Erick pointed to a closer tangle. “—That one about the only tangle that is closer than the hundred year wall. I’d estimate that one at 40 years out, but it’s moved deeper and shallower several times.

“None of these tangles are set. All of them move.

“In the beginning, Patriarch Xangu and the Red Dot Dragon were right up in front, almost at the very edge of the platform. Those were immediate problems. Those did not move; they just got closer and more solid, while that hundred year wall shifts every time I look at it.” Erick said, “I’m just guessing that that is a hundred years away, by the way, because that is the thing that makes the most sense. But it could be some other confluence. Whatever the case, it’s rather distant, and we’ll all still be around to fix it when it does happen.” Erick finished with, “So take a look around and do whatever you have to do for a while. Maybe half an hour?”

His people looked away from him, and focused on the sky.

Aisha stared, her eyes wide and flickering with iridescent magic of her own. Teressa stared at the sky, too, her eyes filled with grey light. Both of them were doing some sort of [Future Sight] or possibly [Witness]. Both of them were much more capable with prognostication than Erick, too, so maybe they would see more than he had seen.

Clavog and Raim began talking in small voices to each other, their previous anger completely forgotten as they tried to understand everything else around them. They spoke of the small [Renew] runes in the stone underfoot, and ringing the fountain, and in the paired mushrooms that grew from the soil like curving horns to barely touch at the tips, but with one tip enfolding the other. The mushrooms themselves grew in the shape of [Renew]. This land was weird. Much weirder than Ar’Cosmos.

And so, Erick let them explore.

Kiri and Tasar’s enthusiasm faded after a few minutes, their expressions both going softer, and more worrisome. Both of them looked a little lost.

Erick would get to Tasar soon enough, but first he went to Kiri, asking, “What’s up? What are you feeling?”

Kiri startled at Erick’s voice, and then she calmed. She was on the edge of a choice which had been building for a while now, and though she didn’t know how to best say it, she decided to simply get on with it. “I want to learn Spatial Magics.”

Erick’s heart had briefly pumped hard as he suddenly worried about what Kiri could possibly want, and why it had been such a difficulty for her to tell him until now, but Spatial Magics? That was a lot better than his worst possible fears!

Tasar had a different reaction, though. She whipped her head around to stare at Kiri, and then she glanced to Erick.

Erick was already smiling. “Of course—” And then he realized the depth of what Kiri was asking. “I mean... Spatial Magic is dangerous, but we’re past the initial deals I made with the Wayfarer’s Guild to not let anyone else know what they told me, and you have Sunny to brute force a lot of that experimentation.” Erick smiled again, saying, “I was expecting to eventually tell you all about all that stuff, so of course! Yes.”

“And then I want to walk the Worldly Path with you at the end of it.”

Tasar gasped.

Erick was only capable of uttering a rather unbalanced, “Uh?”

“Not for years more.” Kiri said, “But eventually.”

Erick recovered. “I mean. Yes— You know what that entails.”

“I can barely guess at everything that it entails...” Kiri turned to face the sky of lightning. “But I need to do more than I am—” She stopped speaking as she suddenly realized that they weren’t alone here in Erick’s Gate Space, and that they never were. Sheepishly, she whispered, “Talk later?”

Erick nodded. And then he prepared to hear Tasar’s naysaying.

Tasar stated, “I believe it would be a bad idea to allow anyone else to walk the Worldly Path at this moment in time.”

Erick turned to her. “I agree, and I am glad that Kiri has said that she would wait a few years. Hopefully this delay coincides with my own desire to not do too many things all at once.” Erick looked to Kiri.

Kiri nodded her head a little. “Yes. I can wait… But I want to do more than I am…” Her voice trailed off.

She left a lot unsaid. Like how she was bored, as Jane and Sitnakov had been bored. She was still young and powerful and needed to do something useful and Erick wasn’t giving her nearly enough to do, or spending nearly enough time teaching her lately. At the same time, she knew Erick had been busy, and that this was good work being done here, so she didn’t complain too loudly at all. In fact, this much right here was the most she had said on the subject in the last two months since they moved to Candlepoint.

“I want you to work with Mox to start expanding the lakeside to about a hundred kilometers out from the actual lake. I want to start bringing the real forest back to the crystal forest, and it’s time to start doing that.” Erick asked, “What do you say?”

Kiri stammered, “Ye— Yes! Of course!”

“Good. And also...” Erick turned back to Tasar. “Could you teach Kiri all there is to know of Spatial Magic? In return, I will tell you how to make a [Familiar] that has their own mana, and if you cannot do it on your own, I will do the same Wizardry I did for Kiri and Sizzi, for you.”

Tasar stood a bit straighter. “Uh.”

Kiri was barely able to hide her joy under a veneer of professionalism.

Tasar’s thoughts solidified. She looked at Erick, her black and green metal eyes narrowed slightly. “So it was Wizardry?”

“Unintentional, and, as I said before, you probably won’t like what actually happened there.” Erick shrugged. “It’s nothing untoward, but you, personally, will have a problem with it.”

“… I’ll do it.” Tasar said, “If you allow me to walk the full Worldly Path with Miss Flamecrash when she decides to actually walk it.” She looked to Kiri. “Which won’t be for at least ten years at the absolute earliest.”

Erick was fine with that. He looked to Kiri.

Kiri nodded vigorously, saying, “Absolutely!”

Erick smiled gently. “Good. This is good. You two can talk a bit. I’m going to see what those two are up to.”

Erick walked away, leaving Kiri and Tasar to talk with each other. It was awkward for them, but they would get over it soon enough.

Erick looked to Aisha, Teressa, Raim, and Clavog. The four of them had barely paid any attention at all to the discussion between Kiri, Tasar, and Erick; they were fully focused on the lightning sky, either watching it through eyes of magic, or in deep discussion with each other over what they were seeing.

Erick chose to approach the two men, since they were actually able to talk. “What are you two seeing?”

Raim included Erick in the conversation with Clavog, saying, “We were discussing the various reasons why Benevolence might not be showing up on Veird, and I am of the opinion that you are keeping it all here, under your control. Perhaps we are too close to the center.” He added, “It is well known that Hullbreaker’s base of operations was superbly hidden from elemental detection magics, but perhaps it wasn’t so much hidden, as it was under his direct control when he was nearby. The condensers are meant to work with mana, after all; not magic.”

A good theory. Erick was glad of Raim’s expertise. But...

Clavog didn’t agree. “While my colleague’s ideas have merit, Hullbreaker did not have a Gate Space. He did have tight control over his Element, though, for it was only the stuff outside of his control that we were able to pick up on. I feel the answer to our lack of Benevolence is less the need for you to loosen up, my king, but instead to spread around more life. Look at these mushrooms! Benevolence has a clear connection to plants, and so, if you used Benevolence to sprout a bunch of life out there, perhaps this would be the best way to start spreading the growth of this Element.” Clavog said, “Plant life creates mana, too, after all.”

Raim said, “Of course the real problem is that you’re still connected to the Script, and all your mana production goes to the Core.”

Clavog nodded a little, wanting to see what Erick had to say about that.

Erick said, “That’s not going to change.”

Raim and Clavog both looked like they had lost an opportunity.

Clavog recovered, saying, “Eh. Making Benevolence plants will spur the growth of more Benevolence faster than most other methods, even if that mana is scrubbed inside the Core and distributed to whoever casts Benevolence spells.”

Raim said, “We’re pretty sure that every person you [Reincarnation]ed produces something close to Benevolence. It’s slow growth, but it’s steady growth. Probably for the best. We can’t stress the condensers any more than we already are.”

Clavog stood straight with surprise as he looked down at Raim, saying, “I did not expect you to say what I’ve been saying all along.”

Raim scowled a little as he shook his head. “Sometimes you have good ideas. Not always. But sometimes.”

Clavog laughed a little, saying, “And sometimes you have good ideas too, or at least you do when you finally accept that my ideas are for the best! Maybe—”

For a brief, shining moment, everything had been fine.

And then lightning crashed out of the sky, pouring into the eyes of Teressa and Aisha, into their souls like a river becoming tiny streams full of absolute power. And it was not stopping. Erick felt frozen in time as he watched it happen, like he was witnessing something important. Neither Teressa or Aisha looked in pain. Neither looked in distress. But only a fraction of a second had passed—

“Oh!” Teressa exclaimed, lightning still flashing through her eyes and out of her body to strike the platform at her feet, ferns and mushrooms and grasses erupting all around her boots. She wasn’t in pain at all, though her voice was deep with realized power. “It’s a war past the opening of worlds.”

Lightning conducted through Aisha, impacting the platform and spreading life all around her, too, as she spoke, “A war inside the mana.”

Teressa said, “An opening of [Gate]s.”

“A clashing outside of control.”

“It starts with the death of a god. The change of a goddess. An elevation outside of control.” Teressa said, “And it has markers long before that larger war.”

Aisha pointed at a clump of black lightning. “That one is a child born in light and raised on tales of darkness, who wishes control but who has no right to the power he wields. We will find him born in the winter of 1516, 79 years from now, in a village in the lands of the new Empress of Nelboor. He will be one of the few marked by Benevolence, and he must be killed to prevent a war.”

Teressa pointed to a clump of shadows. “That one is a boy who will become a man who wields [Small Spark] and [Metalshape] like a Wizard. He will be born in the metropolis of Candlepoint in 35 years. He will bring forth a new era in runework and computerization, and he will show us the way into every New World henceforth. He must be raised right.”

Aisha pointed to a different clump of lightning. “A woman who is a child, born into a Fairy World and raised under the depredations of dragons, she assassinates hope in the year 1535, a year before Yggdrasil matures. Her assassination of three heads of households causes a chain reaction that envelopes this world and the next. She must be murdered after her husband and child are consumed by a dragon.”

Teressa turned her sight left, and said, “That one is a dragon queen who turns her Fairy World into a land of honor. She is already known, and she must be supported. Her wars will end many lives but it is better than the alternative.”

The two prognosticators spoke, and the tableau of lightning changed.

Instead of an airy, unknown thing, it became an orderly set of knowns.

Over fifteen shadowy spots simply evaporated. Several condensed, becoming smaller and more manageable. Erick recognized the one that was Bright Smile long before Teressa pointed that one out, but now Bright Smile’s tangle was solid. Now, Erick was pretty sure he knew which way that dragon’s Benevolence marker fell. Bright Smile was an asset, but also a weight; a force for immense change that would be both bloody, and organized.

Teressa had pointed out two hopes that must be nourished.

Aisha had pointed out two weights that must be cast into the abyss.

And that was it. The moment was done.

Lightning retreated back into the sky, pulling away from Teressa and Aisha, leaving them ragged. Blood wept from Teressa’s empty eye sockets and poured from holes in her skin. Spots of blackened metal sparked upon Aisha. Teressa collapsed, but Aisha froze like a rusted automaton no longer able to move on her own.

Erick immediately evacuated Teressa to Oceanside’s hospital.

Aisha went to Stratagold, under Tasar’s quick care.

- - - -

Fifteen minutes of panic.

Half an hour of waiting.

An hour more of tests and then finally, confirmation that Teressa was okay, for now.

She was not okay. She might not ever be okay. But she was stable. Through the walls, Erick could see her soul and he knew there had been a change. Lightning had ripped through her body, leaving her damaged all throughout, but even while the doctors were healing her, all of that damage was healing at an accelerated rate. It almost looked like the damage from a [Soul Burn], but even that spell wasn’t this easy to heal from. Whatever the case, Teressa was healing rapidly, on her own. All the doctors could do was to administer the healing magics that they could.

More slight relief came when Aisha was able to report, on her own, that she was already recovering, physically, though the Inquisition wanted to talk to him when next he was able. She would be recovering at Stratagold for a day, though, and she would not be able to return to duty for a few days. Erick told her that was fine, and that he wished her a speedy recovery.

Apparently, her [Future Sight] had been transformed into [Benevolent Sight], which…

Was a thing.

‘It says ‘See the benevolent future’,’ Aisha sent, ‘Not much more than that. Sorry I cannot tell you more for that is all I know, as well.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Aisha. Worry about yourself. Get well soon.’

A soft warmth flowed through their connection. ‘I wish Teressa a speedy recovery, too.’

Their connection ended, and Erick continued to watch over Teressa while the soul specialist doctor continued to apply spells to the large woman.

Teressa was much worse off than Aisha.

Kirginatharp showed up half an hour later and did his own magic on Teressa. It was an easy meeting, politically; Erick had gotten over much of his anxiety around Kirginatharp, and the Headmaster had done the same for the Wizard of Candlepoint. It had been a hard meeting, emotionally.

When he was done inspecting the damage, Kirginatharp walked into the waiting room with Erick, Poi, and Kiri. He said, “Her soul is rearranging into something else. I don’t feel that any of this damage is permanent at all, though what comes out of this, I know not. Aisha seems to have gained [Benevolence Sight]. I imagine Miss Rednail’s change will be much more severe.”

Erick breathed deep, feeling a wave of anxiety come and then go. He was already focused on Teressa with his mana sense. Kirginatharp’s theory might prove to be true. Teressa’s soul was already stabilized, and fully inside her body, though she was still unconscious.

Kirginatharp continued, “I understand that both of them saw the deep future inside your Gate Spate.”

Though the severity of the topic was massive, Erick easily answered, “That is what it appeared to happen. Aisha and Teressa both plucked at the web of problems in a hundred years and made some predictions. You want a report? You’ll have it soon enough. I find it difficult to believe some of the things they said, for they were precise— Well. As precise as you can be with prognostication.” Erick wasn’t worried about the uncertain future, though. “It’s all happening multiple decades from now, anyway.”

Kirginatharp was not relieved. “Since it seems to be tentatively proven that you can very accurately predict certain specific end-of-the-world scenarios, I would ask that you don’t let the minor danger of exposing others to your Benevolence deter you from continuing to do so.”

Rage came to Erick like a sudden storm—

He shut that down. Erick ignored the pain of the moment. He took a deep breath, and said, “Whatever happens next time will happen under much better preparation.”

Kirginatharp studied Erick for a moment, then nodded. “It is a shame we could not meet again under better circumstances. Now if you will excuse me, I believe the doctor is waking Miss Rednail up—”

Erick redirected his mana senses toward Teressa. She was waking up.

“—And I expect you wish to talk with her, and with the doctor. I would speak with you about more [Reincarnation]s for other suitable people, and your desired recompense, but it need not happen now.” Kirginatharp gave a small nod, and stepped away. “Good day, Erick.”

Erick instantly rushed into the room with Teressa. Poi and Kiri followed close behind. The doctor stood to the side, waiting to speak, but he held his tongue for the moment.

Groggily, Teressa looked around. Her emerald eyes were different, now; a bit more white than before. But she still had eyes. The doctors weren’t sure if they would be able to bring those back, but they had.

She spotted Erick right away, and chuckled, saying, “I fell down on the job, Boss. Sorry.”

Erick let the tears flow, saying, “Ahhh… Don’t worry about it, Teressa.” He grabbed her hand. She was a bit cold. “You gave me something of a scare, there.”

“I saw everything, Erick.” They were such small words, but as Teressa spoke, the world seemed to pause. “It’s all fuzzy now, but I saw it all, and it was wonderful.”

Erick just smiled. “We can talk about all that later.” He sighed. “Gods. You gave me quite a scare!”

“You already said that.” Teressa gripped Erick’s hand, and then let go. “I’m fine, Boss.” She looked around. “How long was I out? And we’re at Oceanside now?”

Poi said, “It’s been about four hours.”

“You were like a lightning conductor in there,” Kiri said, “Just pulling down a storm into your eyes. Can you still see?”

Teressa blinked a bit, then said, “Yeah. Look— I— You didn’t need to bring me all the way here.” She swung her feet off the bed and got up, saying, “I’m perfectly fine.”

Erick had a minor panic, but the doctor didn’t say anything, and Teressa was moving fine. He didn’t stop her.

Teressa twisted her torso left and right, then touched her nose with her left pointer finger, and then did the same with her right pointer finger. “All fine. Can’t keep a good Juggernaut down!” She asked the doctor, “I’m good, right?”

The presiding soul doctor took a step forward. “You are not fine. I have no idea of the nature of your particular ailment, but though your soul looks fine right now, your soul is in turmoil. It is settling into a new configuration. This is the sort of damage one sees when a person breaks a tier 9 spell, or when someone suffers from prolonged [Soul Burn] torture. Something has happened to you.” He included Erick as he spoke to Teressa, “I was one of the inspectors for Wizard Flatt’s [Reincarnation], and you, Miss Rednail, might want to get your affairs in order in case you need to go down that path. When your soul settles, you might not be able to naturally expel rads, or you might feel your entire perspective on a beloved hobby is gone, or you might have a new hobby that you never before considered. Or you might simply wake up in the middle of the night and decide that everyone around you needs to die. You could lose control of your Rage.”

Teressa did not look worried, and that worried everyone else.

The doctor noticed this too, but he simply continued, “Those are all outside possibilities considering the nature of your magical accident, or at least what I was allowed to know of it. Either way; bed rest till the settling is done, [Reincarnation] if the settling proves disastrous. You are lucky to still have a soul at all, considering what you looked like when you came in here. I venture to say that if your accident had happened to anyone with less Health or without Constitution, then they would have simply perished.” He said to Erick, “[Reincarnation] is a miracle. I hope you use it on more people. Miss Rednail is free to go at your convenience, but keep an eye on her. A very close eye. Good day.”

And then he walked out of the room. The doctor was incredibly uneasy around Erick, and so he had been perhaps curt, but he said everything that Erick needed to know.

Erick called out to him, “Thank you, doctor!” But the doctor kept walking. Erick kept the worry out of his voice as he happily turned back to Teressa, saying, “You heard the man! Bed rest for a week!”

Teressa scowled. “My soul looks fine. I’m looking at it right now.”

“It did not look fine.” Erick said, “You can take it easy for a while. Read a new book series, or something. That’s an order.”

Teressa laughed once, then sarcastically asked, “But who is going to cook? You haven’t cooked in two weeks.”

“I make breakfast sometimes! But you’re right. It’s past time I hired people to do that.” Erick said, “Or at least filled in some of the restaurants in the House. Got any suggestions?”

“Not really,” Kiri mumbled.

Teressa shrugged.

Poi instantly said, “A fish place.”

Erick smiled. “Sure— Oh! How about one of those world class Cooks from Songli?”

Teressa didn’t look too thrilled about that. But then she brightened. “If you can get one like that woman that worked for Tenebrae, then yes.”

“I remember that. She made a really good burger and strawberry milkshake.” Erick opened a [Gate] back to their home on Yggdrasil’s boughs, saying, “Maybe I could see if ‘Meat! Bread! Cheese!’ wants to open a place in the House? I miss them, too.”

“Sure! I could go for the—” Teressa paused as she blinked at the air. “Ah. Those are weird.” She pulled some blue boxes out of the air and handed them off.

Caution!

You have mutated one of your spells in an unknown and potentially dangerous way!

If this was unintentional please see a Registrar or pray to Rozeta to have this change undone. Such a repairing will cost 1 point, or the completion of a Quest.

If someone else did this to you without your consent, please see a Registrar or pray to Rozeta to have this change undone. Such a repairing might be free.

This is your changed spell:

Future Sight X, variable cast time, variable range, 25 mana

See the future.

This spell has become:

Benevolent Future Sight X, variable cast time, variable range, 25 mana + variable cost

See the benevolent future.

Teressa said, “I think this means my soul is now actually settled.”

Erick glanced at the boxes, and at Teressa’s soul. It did seem more solid right now. Indistinguishable from anyone else’s normal soul, actually. He said, “Aisha’s [Future Sight] was changed the same way. We didn’t know what was going to happen to you, though. We were worried… And you don’t seem to be worried at all?” Erick frowned, saying the words that he was a bit worried to actually say, “You’re… completely fine?”

Teressa shrugged and walked forward, through the [Gate] back home, a faint smile upon her lips as she said, “I’m not worried about anything, actually. Not even worried that my eyes are different. I saw the future, and I know it’ll turn out well.”

A disturbing proclamation?

Or perhaps something good happening for once?

The fact was, that Erick wasn’t ready to relax at all, but after one very large accident, Teressa’s usual solid demeanor had softened to a peace-time ease. That simply shouldn’t happen. He glanced at Kiri, and Poi; both of them were worried the same as him.

The three of them followed Teressa back to the house, and Erick closed the [Gate] behind them.

- - - -

“No, you’re right. I did not see absolutely everything,” Aisha said, finally conceding the point that they wanted to hear. She was currently confined to bed rest, sitting in the bowl of crystal that would be her home for the next day while the healers came and went. It was all so very annoying. They didn’t believe her Sight! So she strongly reiterated, “I only saw every single major danger’s threat vector, where those dangers will start, and what they will look like. I even saw which world will be the next world! It’ll be Yoril! And it will be completely different from Veird in every way we think of as ‘normal’.”

Silence stretched, for Aisha had said everything she could say, and multiple times, too.

Kromolok was not convinced.

Riivo wanted to believe, but he was skeptical.

Tasar was present, in order to provide a separate witness. She withheld her judgment.

Queen Strelkova and King Alfonin were split; they would listen to their advisors and make some decisions afterward.

No one else was present in this small meeting room, in a tower in the White Palace at the center of Stratagold.

Strelkova broke the silence, asking, “Could Erick have made her see these things?”

The Queen of Stratagold was not asking Aisha, so Aisha did not answer.

“Highly doubtful,” Kromolok said, “Erick would have needed to see them himself and he has no knowledge of all of what Aisha Sighted. No; Erick made his [Gate] with the idea of letting it solve apocalyptic threats on its own, and so, I think this was our first real interaction with the [Gate] itself.”

Riivo nodded. “I agree with this assessment.”

Kromolok nodded, and then continued, “The nature of the Sights seen, though, and the fact that the sky changed, means that Aisha only saw one possible—”

Aisha frowned.

Kromolok stressed, “You only saw one possible future, Aisha. There is no way that anything you saw was set in adamantium, especially with our stance on Wizards shifting, and Erick being Erick, and all the Crystal Forest transforming into livable land within 40 years. Chaos is everywhere, and though you peered through that Chaos, Chaos is still Chaos.”

Riivo shook his head a little, saying, “Benevolence could be gathering problematic situations into nodes of change. It could be solidifying parts of the future into known unknowns. Transforming Chaos into Order.”

Kromolok shook his head, saying, “Benevolence is not Fate, ordinating events and ensuring those outcomes happen. Benevolence could, however, be ordinating events and ensuring that other people can see them and stop them, for Erick has already proven able to change the futures he sees through Benevolence. He executed that dragon and that patriarch, and those dangers dissipated. Simply by viewing the Benevolence Sky, Aisha changed those futures, too. If there is a fundamental difference between Fate and Benevolence, it is this: Fate makes odd things cascade in monumental ways, Benevolence lets you see when odd things will happen in order to stop or change those things.” Kromolok added, “Adding to that, Riivo, you have chosen to ignore the other half of what was Witnessed. Aisha merely saw all the bad, but Teressa saw all the good.”

“Teressa saw the possible good,” Riivo said, “She could be mistaken as well, and we won’t get the chance to officially interrogate her at all.”

More silence.

Aisha saw the question Alfonin would ask long before he actually asked it. And then—

Alfonin asked, “Are we okay with a deterministic future?”

It was a large question. One Aisha was still thinking of even as the King of Stratagold spoke those words. It was a question the wrought had answered on behalf of Veird and all of existence many times already:

No.

Clearly, no.

The future was meant to be held in the hands of mortals, and not in the hands of the gods, or the mana, or Wizards, or anyone or anything else.

Fate was Sealed in a blue box, buried deep in the Script. It leaked sometimes, but it was still mostly Sealed, and that was for the good of all. There were two others that were fully Sealed and Banned, and even Aisha had no idea of what those Elements had been; only that they had existed, and now they were gone. Gone from the world, gone from memory, gone from the mana.

Aisha was lost, though, for history had taught her which response was the most correct. She knew, based on historical fact and lived history and example after example, that the correct answer to Alfonin’s question was ‘no’. And yet...

Aisha answered, “Yes.”

Kromolok, Tasar, Riivo, Alfonin, and Strelkova looked to her.

Aisha said, “Benevolence is not Fate. Benevolence specifically allows for us to see the problems coming and then stop them. That’s how Erick made it. That is how it works. That is how I know that it works, fully and completely. But even with that knowing, the future still shifts. I saw the sky transform as I named the tangles. Most vanished. Some moved. Some were so… So complicated that I don’t fully remember all of them, but there was one...

“I saw it so clearly, and yet still through a fog.” Aisha felt herself pull away from her body, as her eyes lit with lightning. She viewed the room from outside herself, and then she went further. “I saw the trajectory of Benevolence itself.

“All of Erick’s Gate Space was itself a tangle; the [Small Spark] that would set the entire machine of the universe into motion. A twisting ocean of lightning. Everything connected to everything else, and Benevolence as that connection. It was a dark and bright thing. Good and Evil. Weal and woe. It was the start of other Gate Spaces made in other Elements. It was the start of everything, and it was so…” Like a great pit opening up, with void expanding everywhere, Aisha spoke, “Death and destruction, everywhere. Worlds vanishing in blinks.” The void turned around, and Aisha spoke from on high, “Worlds carved out of nothing and life given room to grow. The return of evil gods and galactic threats.

“The return of the Old Cosmology, but in a new shape, and in a new body.

“A [Reincarnation].

“I was briefly a goddess in that moment, watching it all unfold from my tiny body, far, far in the past… In the present.” Aisha’s eyes faded as she came back to herself, to a room filled with wide-eyed royalty, and powers-that-be. “And then it was gone. I saw so much more than what I remember. If Teressa had anything near the same experience, then… Then…” Aisha felt light, as though all her weights were lifted, and all the world would be fine, if only she could do what needed to be done, when it needed to be done. “I’m sure she’s feeling the same thing I am right now. Like everything makes sense, and nothing can go too wrong.”

More silence.

Strelkova quietly said, “You did not respond like that in our first questioning.”

Aisha nodded. “Benevolence tangles as it wonts in order to provide the best possible outcome for all. I am okay with being a conduit for this sort of change.”

Kromolok asked, “And you’re okay with seeing worlds break under apocalypse after apocalypse?”

Aisha was not okay with that at all, but she said, “I can handle the Sight of it all, if you can help with prevention.”

More silence.

And then Kromolok answered, “Some determinism is fine.”

Rozeta stepped into the room. She looked happy. “I agree.”