073, 2/2

Dinner was spicy fried fish and rice and beer, ordered down in town and brought up to Jane’s room, to a table conjured in front of the large windows that looked out across Oceanside’s crescent harbor. Lights glowed on the ships in the harbor down below and across all the rest of the city. Oceanside was a college city, after all; there were a lot of people out and about in the well-lit night.

Jane was still sleeping soundly; she did not wake for all the scents of food around her, but after a few minutes into dinner a nurse on duty came in to the room, saying that the spices were too strong; they were stinking up the place. Erick cast a [Scent Ward] across the room and apologized. The nurse left, closing the door behind her. Erick almost added an [Audio Dampening Ward] to the room, but all the patients who needed sleep were under [Sleep] runes like Jane, and the nurses gave no indication that loud noises were a problem for anyone. If that changed, he could always add one later.

Erick asked Teressa, “Nothing happened while we were gone?”

“Nope.” She said, “Quite boring, which is just how I like it. How was it with you all?” She looked to Kiri, who was chugging her third bottle of beer, asking, “Tough?”

Kiri asked, “How can you just talk to him like that, Erick!”

Rats joked, “You’re not dead or maimed, so it can’t have been that bad, Kiri.”

Poi said, “Erick secured Oceanside’s aid against Messalina and made initial plans to construct a ten-floor light slime dungeon, which is also for his benefit, and the benefit of Civilization.” Poi said, “And he didn’t have to give up any real secrets to do it.”

Erick almost added, ‘Not yet’, but he decided not to.

Rats held up his beer, saying, “Cheers to that.”

Kiri finished off her beer and reached for her fourth, saying, “This is crazy. The Headmaster is Second to Rozeta. He’s the only dragon living openly in the whole world. He has eaten every single dragon that came for him, and he eats all of those who try and fail to kowtow to him. Oceanside and the Headmaster lead the Arcanaeum Consortium. You know of those, right? Archmage Quel is beholden to the Headmaster. The Arcanaeum Consortium are the people who raise those who lift the first spears and spells against the monsters.”

“I get that…” He didn’t get her point at all. So they were famous and powerful, so what? Erick asked, “But what’s the problem, Kiri?”

Kiri whisper-shouted, “You promised to make a light slime dungeon and you got 25 percent of the proceeds. Forgetting the very real possibility that he’ll let people use it for free, and you shouldn’t have asked for anything in return for helping to make the world a better place?” She said, “He won’t sell the rights at all. He’ll give it away and demand bargains of trade.”

Rats ate his dinner in silence. Teressa and Poi did the same.

Erick said, “I don’t think he’s petty enough to deny the spirit of that 25 percent, but even if he does get around it, it’s not a big deal. I’m glad to help civilization, Kiri. But the fact is, is that I cannot allow myself to be run over, and this way I can get [Lightwalk] and he can take care of the actual dungeon, doing whatever he wants to do with it, and the bonds between Spur and Oceanside can grow. I needed to do something to restore that bond, so I did what I could.” He added, “I did not expect there to be that much resentment or bad blood or whatever between the Headmaster and Silverite, but there is obviously something there that doesn’t need to be there.” He turned to Poi, asking, “Do you have any idea what was going on with that? I expected some of that, but the Headmaster talked of profiteering off of Ar’Kendrithyst like it was a choice of Silverite’s, and not the result of the Shades being Shades and the dark dragon being himself.”

Poi said, “Accusing Spur of profiteering is a normal enough occurrence. Neither the Army nor Silverite cares too much about all of that.” He added, “We know what we’re about, no matter if the world thinks otherwise.”

Erick said, “Silverite knows something about what happened between Messalina and the Headmaster. She wouldn’t say, but I got the impression that there was something personal, there.”

Rats said, “I heard something like that, but from this end. Messalina was a prominent student at Oceanside before she killed those seven arcanaeums.”

Kiri said, “Sorry. No.” She went back to, “That’s… not what I mean. It doesn’t matter if you made a good deal or not.” Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she stared into the distance, saying, “Nothing is real. Nothing matters.”

Erick laughed, then instantly corrected himself to a stern face, because Kiri was obviously in some sort of crisis right now. He said, “Everything is real, Kiri. Just because particles are waves and real and nothing is as we see it, does not mean that it’s not all still real.”

Poi laughed once, but as Kiri paled again, he did more or less the same thing Erick did to cover up his reaction; turning stern in a moment. Teressa and Rats just ate their dinner; silently watching the show.

Kiri said, “But it’s not real, is it? It’s all just packets of energy. We can’t really know anything about anything, can we?”

“Sure we can!” Erick said, “Right now, I know that Messalina is actively hurting the people of Spur, and that we’re doing what we can do prevent that.” He held up his fried fish bowl, saying, “I know that this is delicious.” He held up his beer, saying, “And I know that this is pretty good, too.”

Kiri looked down at her untouched food. She said, “Is it?”

Erick asked, “Focus on this, then: Do you want [Lightwalk]?” He smiled at Kiri as he said, “I’m making a dungeon full of light slimes, you know. Getting the skill is only a matter of time once everything is up and running.” He looked to everyone else, to Poi, to Rats, to Teressa. “Even if I don’t get endless amounts of money from the place, you’re all welcome to try for the skill yourself. Properly made ten floor dungeons are supposed to produce a hundred slimes a day, meaning one elemental body skill for one person every twenty to thirty days, give or take a week… I don’t know if light slimes are the same as other slimes.”

Teressa looked up for a moment, thinking. She said, “That’s 7500 gold in small rads.” Rats said, “Holy shit. Maybe I should make a dungeon.” He looked to Erick, adding, “And I want [Lightwalk], if you’re offering.”

Kiri just stared at her dinner.

Poi said, “[Lightwalk] is good, but as I’ve said: the shadows of Ar’Kendrithyst are strong enough that a strong light only makes them more powerful.”

Erick said, “That reminds me of a question I had: Are there such a thing as darkness slimes? What is the difference between darkness and shadows? Why are they called ‘shadow essences’, and not ‘darkness essences’?”

Teressa said, “True darkness is just death.”

“That’s not it.” Rats said, “Darkness is wizardry. Because yeah: Darkness does not actually exist. It takes a wizard to make darkness.”

Poi said, “That’s closer to what I’ve always been told. I can agree with that.”

Kiri seemed hollow, as she asked, “Is darkness a fundamental part of your Reality?”

Poi hummed, looking at Erick. Rats and Teressa went silent again.

Erick said, “No?” He amended, “Probably not.” He thought for a moment. “Oh! Wait. Uh. The universe that I came from was expanding faster and faster, due to some unknown energy. We called it ‘Dark Energy’, but that was just because we couldn’t see what was actually doing the expansion. Not because ‘darkness’ was a building block of Reality, but because we were just ignorant of the truth.”

Kiri sat still for a moment. Then she chugged her beer and grabbed another from the ice bucket.

Poi said, “So that’s probably enough talk of the dark for now.”

Kiri blurted, “I need you to talk about superposition again.”

“I think I told you everything I know.” Erick said, “I watched a ton of videos on the stuff to try and learn for a semester of coursework, but I really don’t know that much.” He said, “I think the problem here, Kiri, is that the magic they teach here is all about knowing and plotting and understanding, but the problem with quantum mechanics and magic is that they are inherently unknowable, until you know, and then they’re no longer wave functions.”

Kiri said, “I’m so confused but that just sounds so wrong.”

Erick didn’t argue.

Rats said, “If it’s any consolation, Kiri, I have no idea what he just said.”

“Me either,” Teressa said.

Poi just smirked.

Kiri glared at Poi, demanding, “Do you understand what he said?”

Poi said, “Of course not. I know what my magic is about, and it’s not about ‘superposition’ and ‘wave functions’.”

“Dammit.” Kiri drank her beer.

Erick ate his dinner, saying, “This fish place is pretty good.”

Poi said, “You can’t get fish like this in Spur.”

Rats said, “You can if you can catch them. Airfish are pretty good.”

Poi blurted, “You have no idea how much I wanted to catch those airfish that lured that yellow eyebeam wyrm at us.” Poi said, “Oh my gods, those things are the most delicious fish in the whole world.”

Teressa said, “Oh yeah. Slice ‘em up with salt and pepper.”

Erick said, “I should make you guys some lemon pepper fish. You might like that, Poi.”

Kiri swayed a little as she downed her fifth beer. Everyone else was halfway through eating, but she had yet to touch her food. She looked down at her bowl of fish and rice, saying, “I miss beef.” She suddenly teared up, saying, “I really miss beef.” She sniffled a little, then set her beer aside. She dug into her rice bowl.

Erick asked her, “Did your parents decide to stay in Tower Town, or did they actually move to Odaali?”

Kiri offhandedly said, “They moved to Odaali just last week. The whole family. All twelve of them started a new life in some new town just south of the Kingdom City. On a hill.”

Erick said, “Good for them!”

Rats said, “I heard the reconstruction is going decently. A lot more people survived the Dead Air Catastrophe than they thought. There’s a woman downstairs from the Republic talking all about how everyone’s mad that so many people are coming back to the city, but none of them stayed to fight.”

Teressa said, “Typical. People love to carve up territory that they had no part in settling.”

“Anyone heard anything about Caradogh or Portal?” Erick asked.

“Not much.” Poi said, “Just that Spur is really making a go of cutting them out of the loop. Kal’Duresh opened up an industrial district, outside of the main city walls. They’re making a lot of the stuff that Portal threatened to cut, and has cut. Most raw metals have been cut off entirely. None of the wrought are happy about that, but with all the new metallic Particle spells, the refineries of Nergal and the Greensoil Republic are a lot less important.” He added, “Outpost is opening up a new mine. So that problem might be solved.”

Erick said, “Caradogh really could have gone the other direction. He could have sought to export from the Crystal Forest.” A bolt of thought struck Erick cold. He said, “If that man thinks to work with Messalina.” Erick said, “Dammit! She’s probably already contacted him. Can you guys think of anyone else who would have a lot of influence and knowledge of the people of the Crystal Forest? Caradogh is just the first one that springs to mind. This might be a good vector of inquiry.”

Poi said, “Silverite is already on that. Nothing has appeared, yet.”

Kiri said, “I got no idea. Except the Shades, of course.”

Everyone stopped eating, except Kiri.

“I considered that at first. But…” Erick said, “She wouldn’t work with them, would she?”

Poi said, “Messalina is purported to be a strictly self-interested actor, so the possibility of her getting into a team with the Shades is very low… But, honestly, she could. She can operate through parasites and intermediaries without a degradation of skill, meaning that she would never need to meet a Shade in person.” Poi thought for a moment. He said, “When a major power starts operating in the Crystal Forest the possibility of a Shade plots is always the first concern raised. The verdict handed down from Silverite and other city leaders as of last week, was that Messalina was likely not working with the Shades, but if all of those people are compromised, then… We’ll have to revisit this question.”

Rats said, “Until Bulgan, if people worked with the Shades, they were roped around for a while and sure, they did some bad stuff— Like there was that serial killer in Spur two years ago. But that man ended up in Ar’Kendrithyst at the Crack and Fallopolis killed him in front of everyone.”

Teressa added, “The small antagonists quietly get turned into shadelings, but the big ones get dead. She makes a spectacle of it, too, every single time, and they always think that it won’t happen to them. That they’re only moments away from becoming a Shade themselves. Fallopolis would kill Messalina, for sure.”

Erick said, “Sounds to me like they kill the ones that make a spectacle of themselves, but probably more because they don’t want more crazy Shades added to their number.” He looked around, asking, “Does that sound reasonable? After what we saw in Yetta’s trip to kill Planter?”

Poi hummed. Kiri tilted her head back and forth. Teressa drank her beer.

Rats said, “I can see that. It might be right.”

Erick continued, “Messalina is famous, but she’s also a hedonist and an ‘evil necromancer’, according to everyone. Sounds like perfect Shade material, to me.” He added, “But if she’s not that kinda person, then I bet she’s trying to find conspirators that will help her search the Forest— And that’s another thing!” Erick said, for the benefit of Rats and Teressa, “I don’t know if I believe it, but the Headmaster said that she probably found her targets already, but she didn’t want to run back to her jungle yet… For some reason.” Erick paused. He said, “He didn’t actually say the reason. He changed the subject.”

“There was nothing left for her in that jungle, was there?” Kiri said, “They’re all dead, and unable to be re-bodied, or whatever the fuck necromancers like her do.”

Erick said, “And yea! There’s that, too! So they died, so what? She’s a necromancer, right? A necromancer that puts people into new bodies.” He looked around, asking, “What’s up with that?”

Teressa said, “I hadn’t really thought of that.”

Poi ate his fish and rice.

Rats said, “It just means the people she’s trying to find are necromancers, too, and they destroyed the souls of everyone there.”

“Oh.” Erick said, “Well. Yeah. I guess it does mean that.”

Kiri spoke up, “How much do you think everyone on our side is lying?”

Erick burst a nervous laugh.

Poi said, “The normal amount.”

“I would hope just the normal amount,” Erick said.

Jane snored in the background.

 

– – – –

 

Erick wanted to spend the night in the hospital with Jane, but that would mean everyone else would have to stay there, too, and that wouldn’t be fair to them. So he went home, and slept.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The next morning came soon enough.

After checking up on Jane, and seeing that she was perfectly fine, but still sleeping, it was time to begin to fulfill his end of the bargain he made with the Headmaster. He would need to make this light slime dungeon, and it would need to be ten floors large. Fortunately, when Krigea came to Erick to relay the Headmaster’s wishes for this new construction, she came with help.

 

– – – –

 

Professor Apell Calloway, the 430-ish year old, normally pale green, human-shaped wrought professor of dungeoneering, stood beside the central pool of Erick’s dungeon, staring out across the bright, white and prismatic underground space. About two dozen light slimes bounced and played in the streaming water in front of Apell, in the kaleidoscopic light, and on the stone floor around her. They were entranced by a new light source that had entered the room; Apell, herself.

Because all wrought fluoresced in the presence of ultraviolet light, apparently.

While Poi stood a few meters away, Erick stood beside Apell, wearing sunglasses to ward off most of the bright, damaging lights of the dungeon. He could barely tell that Apell was fluorescing; she might have been ever so slightly brighter green than normal. But the light slimes all around her could definitely tell.

Erick did not interrupt this moment for her. She was obviously having some sort of emotional reaction similar to Killzone’s, or Anhelia’s, when they first saw one of Erick’s blacklights. Her eyes were wide, and her face was stunned. She had gasped when she first stepped into the tunnels coming down here, but as the two of them descended the stairs, she had gone silent; reverent. And now she stood in the center of the dungeon, surrounded by blacklights, staring at everything.