081, 2/2

A mental tickle touched Erick’s mind as he was making breakfast in the kitchen.

‘Hey, dad!’

A pair of eggs fell from Erick’s hand and splattered goo across the orange floor. That wasn’t important.

‘Jane!’ Erick sent, ‘Are you in town?!’

‘Not yet.’ Jane sent, ‘Still in Oceansidle. I wontad tool tak ta ool— Sorry. Distant connection. Nothing important or wrong, but I wanted to talk. Alibeth is helping me send to you, but she can’t stay. Send Ophiel down here.’

Erick immediately conjured four Ophiel and sent them blipping across the ocean, in the exact opposite manner he had done for almost three months. The Ophiel on his shoulder whistled in violins, as he sent to Jane, ‘What’s up! What’s happening? How are you feeling? Have you been awake for long?’ He added, ‘I haven’t heard from you in so long! Oh my gods, I miss you, Jane.’

A pulse of forlorn happiness flowed through the connection to Erick, as Jane sent, ‘I miss you, too, Dad.’

Erick [Cleanse]d the eggs from the floor and grabbed another pair. He went back to the flour for his pancakes, while he spoke to his daughter. They talked. It was good. She had heard all about the Red Dot attack, and about all the deaths. Erick briefly spoke of his [Pure Reflection Ward], and Jane jumped in to talk about how she used that against the Ancient Unicorn. They both laughed at that, and then Erick told her of the resurrections, and of who he knew that had been brought back from the End. Savral; Al’s son. Soux; Ulrick Ulrick’s receptionist. Mother Eriliad; the woman at the Interfaith Church who raised Rats. That led to Erick speaking of Rats’ departure.

Incensed, Jane said, ‘That asshole! He left?! HOW? Why?! And with MESSALINA?! Really?’

Erick flipped pancakes as he sent, ‘He has some soul sickness that’s been plaguing him since he was young and he’s hoping for a fix. I hope he finds the cure and comes back—’ He forcefully added, ‘And I don’t want you to make him feel unwelcome when he does!’

‘I’m gonna be mad at him if I want.’

‘And that’s fine. But if he does come back, I’m accepting him back, with only the barest level of security-necessary questioning.’

‘… Have you eaten that unicorn horn yet?’

‘Nope! That’s your horn—’

‘No. I have [Lightwalk] and I didn’t get [Greater Shadowalk] by eating more shadowolves. I doubt that thing would grant [Greater Lightwalk], at all. Besides! I want you to have some way to evade a [Teleport Lock]. That would make me feel a lot better about having the security breach formerly known as Rats out there living and working with the enemy.’ Exasperated, Jane added, ‘And getting his soul messed with! And especially if you’re already willing to take him back! Shit, dad.’

‘… That’s another way to look at it, I suppose.’

‘Get it done.’ Jane took a moment to soften her voice, to say, ‘In other news: I’m going for a water slime body and [Water Body] while I’m down here, and then I’m going to help Oceanside take care of a few problems to pay them back for the use of their dungeons. I might stick around Oceanside for a while longer than that. Maybe get [Air Body] and [Stone Body], too.’

A dozen questions roared at Erick, each of them demanding an answer, but instead of being overprotective and mad and terrified, like he wanted to be, he calmly asked, ‘You mean you’re not coming home?’

‘I still need three more elemental forms for Polymage. Air, stone, and water.’ She said, ‘I was going to go after a Prismatic Octopus, but I’ve been talking to a few other Polymages down here about good forms. Besides the fact that Prismatic Octopuses are notoriously hard to use, they’ve all said that too many strong forms means a higher chance of one of them going rogue. Oozes are apparently as dangerous to have as unicorns, and none of them are quite sure how strong shadow spiders truly are.’

Erick calmly added more butter and batter to the skillet to begin making pancake #35, as he forced his voice to an even keel, sending, ‘They are?’

‘Yeah. But I’ve had no side effects. Still. I might just stick to slimes for two of my remaining three forms. I am going after the bapuali, though. Air slimes don’t fly well.’

‘That’s the bird from the Mondariska Mountains, right? The one that flocks in groups?’

‘Yeah. The people down here call them razorwings. They’re simple forms; barely more trouble than a slime. I’m also changing my stone essence monster from a kerikil to a metal slime.’ Jane added, ‘Kerikils are the stone dogs of the Underworld I told you about.’

‘I remember those. I remember that the Headmaster also has dungeons for metal slimes, too.’

‘Only a small one.’ She said, ‘But he also has a stone slime dungeon for actual stone essence farming.’

While Erick spoke to Jane and continued to make breakfast, Teressa came in and took a huge plate of pancakes, followed closely by Poi who went right to the coftea. By the time Kiri wandered in, Erick had finished making breakfast, but he was still talking to Jane while he ate his own pancakes and everyone else discussed their morning schedules.

He was still happily talking to his daughter when everyone finished breakfast. Kiri cleaned up, while Erick sat back and sipped his coftea while he spoke to Jane of [Cascade Imaging] and plans for the Community Garden and the Council. The topic of Apogee came up.

‘I didn’t know there was another planar person in Spur.’ Jane sent, ‘But that’s interesting about [Teleport]. All the more reason for you to eat that unicorn horn.’

Erick smiled, sending, ‘I’ll get right on that.’

‘You should! And then we can talk about pseudo-[Teleport]s and— Ah. Hold on… Doctor Alibeth just walked in the door. She’s telling me I should take a nap. She’s probably right.’

‘Okay. I love you, Jane.’ Erick sent, ‘Talk to you later.’

‘I love you, too, dad. And oh yeah! One more thing. Caradogh is dead. He made the mistake of coming to Oceanside.’

Erick froze. Everything flickered into hyperfocus as [Hunter’s Instincts] turned on. He breathed. He centered himself. He wasn’t in any danger. Jane wasn’t in any danger, either. If she was, she would have said something in the past two hours. Everything was fine. They still hadn’t found the Red Dot mage, but—

‘Dad? You still there?’

Erick slammed [Hunter’s Instincts] back into storage, turning off the skill as he sent, ‘Yeah. Sorry. I’m… Okay. I’m okay. That’s… Good? About Caradogh? He’s dead? I feel weird about that. I don’t like how I didn’t hear about that until now AND YOU’RE OKAY?! Wait. Yes. You are. Of course you are.’

‘… eat that unicorn horn. It’s pure light essence, so it shouldn’t give you any problems. I’ll talk to you later. Love you. Bye.’

‘Bye. Love you.’

The connection held for a moment, then it broke on Jane’s end.

Erick closed his eyes and held them tightly shut for a long moment. Then he opened his eyes. Ophiel trilled in concerned, questioning cellos on his shoulder. Erick patted the little guy as he dismissed the Ophiel hovering over the ocean. He got up and went to Jane’s tower.

The Queen of the Forest’s main horn rested upright in the center of the tower. The space had not been tall enough to completely house the twisted spike of radiance, so Erick had to bore a hole into the floor, into an unused storage room down below. Even so, the horn still scraped the ceiling, seven meters up.

Erick flopped down into his light slime form, his clothes becoming like a nest, his rings falling to the side. Ophiel hooted in surprised guitar. That particular stringed instrument was a new sound that he had taken from the band at Al’s party. He didn’t use it much, but he seemed to use it to indicate unknown surprise.

From inside his clothes, Erick mentally sent Ophiel, ‘I’ll be more surprised if it takes the whole horn to get [Lightwalk].’

Ophiel switched to flutes and then to violins, as he settled down onto the bare worktable on the other side of the tower. With a dozen open eyes, Ophiel watched.

Erick flopped out of his clothes and plopped onto the stone floor. The floor was a little cold, and touching that solid surface was a little unnerving. The ground vibrated with distant footsteps in a way wholly unfamiliar to Erick.

Moving was different, too. He had to stretch himself into odd shapes in order to get around. But all of that was nothing compared to his vision. As a slime, Erick saw everything in every direction, like he was one great big magical eyeball. Even [Scry] didn’t work like this. Erick much preferred his own body. He didn’t know how Jane could stand this.

Erick decided he could withstand being uncomfortable for a little while. Heck, he hadn’t been anywhere near his comfort zone in a long time. [Polymorph] was just a new form of uncomfortableness, but it wasn’t all bad. Seeing things from a new perspective was a good thing, and light slimes saw the world in a way Erick never had.

He was almost a hundred percent sure that light slimes saw more colors than humans.

As a human, the unicorn horn was a spike of crystalline radiance.

As a slime, the unicorn horn was a towering crystal of reds, blues, greens, and everything in between, but contained into a white, twisting spike of iridescence. With his light slime sight, Erick saw how violets flickered on the edge, twisting up and down the length of the horn, while colors combined into white, then split again into rainbows. It was beautiful. Erick felt he could have stared at the horn for hours, except that some other desire began to take hold in his body. As a slime, Erick recognized the light essence swirling inside the crystal tower. He saw them as packets of possibility crystallized into a whole. Those packets called to him in some primal sort of way.

Whatever emotion prodded at Erick wasn’t exactly ‘hunger’, but it was hunger-adjacent.

Erick mentally smirked at himself, and at this novel emotion urging him to eat.

Theoretically, what he was about to do could lead to him transforming into a radiant ooze. But that was a low probability. No one really knew how radiant oozes came into existence, but one thing was true, all across all the slimes and all the oozes ever recorded: slimes needed mass in order to transform into an ooze. A lot of mass, and a lot of levels. It was this fact that made Erick sure that eating this horn would not be a problem, because essences were not food. This unicorn horn was pure light essence; not even a trace of dragon essence, either. This nine meter horn was less substantial than cotton candy. The whole thing probably weighed less than a kilogram, in total. Maybe. When Erick ate it, he wouldn’t even have to dispose of any extra body weight, because there was nothing extra to dispose of.

He rolled over to the horn. Its radiance stretched up like a spire of swirling, rainbow light.

He reached a pseudopod to the solid radiance. Touching it was like tasting rainbows and finding joy.

He began with a little sip. A depression formed in the horn. Light essence swirled into Erick’s body, brightening his core, settling into [Flash] like the missing piece of a puzzle. He took a longer slurp, carving away a section of the horn near the floor that was almost him-sized. A notification appeared, but it wasn’t a notification for [Lightwalk]. He ignored the blue box, because of a more pressing concern. If he continued to eat the horn like this, it would crack in half. It was already fractured, with a great spreading crack that wrapped up around the length. The horn was stronger than it looked, but there was no reason to make an unexpected mess.

Erick backed away to gaze at the top of the horn, all the way up there, at least twenty body-lengths away. With a thought, he Handy Aura’d into the air and landed on the side of the tip of the horn.

His entire body was a tongue and a mouth at the same time. The tip of the horn disappeared into his body as Erick carved out a seat at the top, like it was a throne of delicious candy and he was the king. He savored the moment, sitting there on the top of deliciousness, before he began eating his way downward.

Gravity and gluttony made a good combination.

He kept track of his notifications as he ate downward. He indulged, but he was prudent about it. Light essence funneled into itself. Some puzzle pieces bounced off and turned into nothing. Others locked into place and brought large sections of completed magic with them.

The promised notification came when Erick was almost all the way down to the floor of the tower.

With a roll and a plop, Erick flopped to the floor. The horn was a fraction of its former self.

… There was still two more meters of horn to go.

… Erick was having a really, really hard time telling himself to stop, to give the rest of the horn to someone else. He had eaten nearly seven meters of light essence, but that tip was a point, and the horn got wider at the base. It was entirely possible that the rest of that horn was enough essence to make another [Lightwalk]; enough to complete another puzzle.

A part of him demanded he finish his meal; if he didn’t eat the whole thing, Jane would be mad at him.

And that was all it took. A bit of rationalization, and he hopped back onto the horn.

He dropped into the windowless room below, eating as he went. Light essence funneled into [Lightwalk], but flickered away as fast as it touched the completed whole. The puzzle had been completed, but Erick could not stop eating. He ate and ate until he could eat no more, because suddenly there was nothing left to eat.

Erick rested on the stone floor. Orange stone was cold to the touch. The room was dark, and Erick felt a little sad. Sadness quickly gave way to anger, wholly directed at himself. Someone else could have used the rest of that horn. Erick felt after [Lightwalk], touching the spell with his mind. He never would have guessed that [Flash] was a single puzzle piece of the whole, until today. All eating that essence did was throw another incomplete puzzle onto the finished one, to destroy something beautiful in pursuit of decadence, to make the world a little less bright than it was before.

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It was dark in this small room under Jane’s tower. Dark and cold and—

No. Wait. That wasn’t it.

Erick’s slime body was practically radiant. Light splashed away from him like the light off of a [Cascade Imaging] orb. He was a lightbulb in a normally lit room, so of course the room looked dark by comparison.

And yes. Melemizargo was probably nearby; he always was. But that didn’t mean anything.

No. This darkness around Erick was normal darkness; a comparative darkness. Erick was a ball of incandescence that rivaled the sun, after all. Of course the room was dark compared to him. Excess light essence spilled away from his rolly body like twisting ribbons, and that was okay.

For a long moment, Erick sat in the relative darkness of the unused room, reveling in the experience of being a pinnacle light slime, committing to memory the taste of purple and orange and every other color, and the gentle, mostly intangible hum of magic that had come with each bite. Whatever secret there was to [Greater Lightwalk], Erick felt he already had all the pieces. The pieces were already put together for him, too. He just had to understand what it all meant, and when he did, he would tell Jane, and ask her what [Greater Shadowalk] meant to her.

Erick stayed like that, sitting in the dim room with no windows, acting as the brightest light source around, for a good twenty minutes. Eventually, his body turned darker. Excess essence dissipated into the room, out of the hole in the ceiling. Natural light came down from that hole, outshining the lightwards down here.

Erick looked up at Ophiel. The winged [Familiar] clutched the edge of the hole, looking down at Erick, gently whispering in harps and violins. Erick relaxed into his bubbly body, spreading out, experiencing the moment, listening to Ophiel’s music.

Erick’s reprieve from duty was short lived. Footsteps echoed through the stone underblob well before their owner stopped in front of the closed door to the room.

Poi said, “Sir. They’re ready for the first rains. Silverite wants me to be diplomatic about it, but I’m going to just tell you: Everyone expects food in the markets by evening.”

Erick smiled to himself. With a shift and an expansion, he was back to his human body. Nude, of course, but that was fixed with a bit of Handy Aura, reaching back up into Jane’s tower to retrieve his clothes, and his rings. He said, “Be right there,” as he shimmied into his pants.

– – – –

The Human District of Spur was the city’s smallest district by far. But even so, losing 25 percent of the flat, orange land around his house did not feel like a large loss. In fact, it felt like a gain. Green land would soon surround the Human District, and that was good.

As Erick stepped out of his front door he gazed toward the distant edge of his neighborhood, next to the rest of the city. Raised beds and tilled stone occupied those edges, while people milled around, working on their soon-to-be gardens. Stone moved through the air under the direction of young men and women. Seeds scattered and drilled into the soft dirt under the direction of older, experienced farmers.

Erick briefly activated [Ultrasight] to better see who he was working with. After a moment, he decided that he knew none of the people standing out there. Whoever the Community Garden Council decided to hire for their farming needs was of no real concern to Erick. His goal was to get the thing up and running and operating without issue.

… But that reminded him: he needed to speak to Ikawa Kali, Krakina’s granddaughter, and Delia Greentalon, Valok’s daughter. Hopefully they were doing… If not mentally okay, then at least physically okay. Ikawa was old enough to take care of herself, but what about Delia? She was only 16, or thereabouts. Had she even Matriculated, yet?