087, 1/2

Erick got home and collapsed in his bed. It was not even noon.

Nightmares came, gentle at first, but long lasting as their unknowable significance. When he awoke, he felt as though years had passed, but all he could recall were dark clouds and bulbous growths crawling under his skin. He shivered under sweat soaked covers. And then he got up.

The sun was well risen in the east, but had yet to cross the sky. Erick had slept like the dead for almost a full day. Stress had gotten to him, bad, and he had dealt with it poorly, but at least he hadn’t let the rainmaking slide… Wait. He didn’t miss another day, did he? Shit. Ah, but it was only one of the small rains. Oh well.

And with those thoughts, Erick was truly up, and slightly flushed with both worry and adrenaline, again. He was not taking care of himself. Aside from the need for the bathroom, he smelled himself, and he smelled awful. A [Cleanse] took care of the immediate smelly problem, while evaporation would take care of the dampness left behind. A trip to the bathroom took care of his morning needs, but just to feel better about everything, he indulged in a [Watershape] shower using the scented soaps from Oceanside. Warm water and soft soap washed away some of his stress, but not a lot.

Ophiel sang on the bathroom sink counter, happy to finally be let in the bathroom. Erick wasn’t sure why he gave into Ophiel’s demand today, but Ophiel’s song was nice, right now; him being outside would have been way too many unhappy screeches.

[Vivid Gloom] had messed Erick up something awful.

Or it could be that his normalcy was shot to shit and he had no routine and everything was up in the air and a war was coming and… There were a lot of problems. He glanced out of the small window of the bathroom, at the thin strip of green surrounding the Human District and orange buildings beyond, and nightmares took over. He imagined fire and darkness and bones and death and tumorous people pulling their bloody bodies across the ground, and—

And he washed it all away, clearing his mind as best he could, discarding his worries down the drain.

With his routine done and smelling of a cross between pine trees and jasmine and drying terror, Erick went downstairs, to the kitchen. No one else seemed to be here, right now, or maybe they were busy in another part of the house. It was a big house, after all. Whatever the case, Erick entered the empty kitchen and set about making his favorite comfort food: pizza. He had started to get heartburn every time he ordered it back on Earth, so he stopped ordering it every Friday night years ago. But now, on Veird, he could handle the decadence that was cheese and tomatoes and everything else. And if not, oh well!

He started with the dough. As he grabbed flour and eggs and everything else he needed from the cupboards and the cold box, he decided to give Jane a ring. Maybe talking to her would be a good idea, if she was up. Maybe she was nearing the end of her physical therapy? He summoned some Ophiel and sent them blipping—

A nice thought crossed his mind: he could deliver Jane’s care package, too. Ophiel hadn’t gotten far, so he blipped the closest [Familiar] back to his mage tower. He had put together Jane’s present… How long ago? Oh. Two days ago. A whole two days ago! Wow. Hmm. Not good.

Yup. He needed to talk to his daughter. Not to burden her with his worries, but… just to talk, about nice things, like magic and… well… probably about plans. She had heard about Candlepoint, right? Of course she had.

Ophiels baton-passed an orange stone box and each other over 13 [Teleport]s to Oceanside, leaving some behind as they went, to form a mental link to Oceanside. The final Ophiel blipped into the blue sky outside of Jane’s hospital room.

There was someone else in her room. They were sleeping in Jane’s bed! Under a powered [Sleep] rune!

Erick did not let worry claw at his heart. He just sent, ‘Jane?’

A reply came quick enough, ‘Hey, Dad! I’m eating dinner at Windy Manor. This place is nice.’

Relief buoyed Erick’s entire body. He sent Ophiel blipping to the manor, as he sent, ‘It’s a pretty great place. Did you move in today, or what?’

‘I got discharged yesterday. I called, but Poi said you were sleeping.’

Ophiel blipped onto the green lawn outside of Windy Manor. Ocean winds tousled through the lemon trees and the potato gardens, combing through the grasses of the land, to brush against the massive picture windows of the log cabin mansion. The lights were on inside. Jane was sitting at the table, eating something. A sandwich? It was almost gone, though. She spotted Ophiel. She waved.

‘You got discharged, then!’ Erick said, ‘I should have been there!’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ she said, smiling.

Ophiel blipped into the house, and took his perch on the couch, while holding the small orange box in his Handy Aura. Erick sent, ‘I made you a present.’

Jane teased, ‘I don’t smell chocolate chip cookies!’

‘… That completely slipped my mind. Chocolate. Wow.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Jane stood up from her chair, and rounded the table to come closer to Ophiel, saying, “Come on then! What’s in the box?”

For a brief moment, Erick paused, and utter terror seized his mind. He thought of body snatchers and Hunters and Caradogh. Was this ‘Jane’, actually Jane? Erick caught himself. He stopped worrying. Of course Jane was Jane; she even mentioned ‘chocolate’, and Erick had not mentioned that word to many people, at all. The only people on Veird who even knew about chocolate chip cookies were Jane and the Goddess of Field and Fertility, Atunir. And probably Poi and such.

“What’s wrong?” Jane frowned, as Erick went silent. “You could have come yourself, you know. Get away from your guards and the worries of the world for a little while. If it would make you feel better, you could even put up a [Prismatic Ward] around here. Or. Actually— Just around my room up there would be good.” She pointed to the room that had been Rats’. “That’s my room.”

Erick split his attention from Jane, to himself, back in his own kitchen, back in Spur. He was still alone, except for Ophiel on his shoulder. He turned his attention back to Oceanside, back to Jane, and said, “I’m not even there in person, and you can tell something is wrong, can’t you.”

Jane calmly sat down across the living room table, on the couch opposite of Ophiel’s, saying, “I did talk to Poi. I heard about your new spells and a few other things. I already knew about Candlepoint. I went to a crash course day-long overview on Shade History, two days ago, and then there was a lecture about what we knew about Candlepoint yesterday. I’ve even had a talk with the Headmaster, himself, too.” She stared at Ophiel, and said, “And then I talked to Kiri, and heard it all again from a much more concerning angle. What’s wrong, Dad?”

Erick put on a happy face, or as much of a happy face as Ophiel could convey with eyes and feathers. He certainly turned his voice into something more jubilant, though. “Nothing, Jane. Absolutely nothing is wrong.” He pushed forward the orange stone box, across the table between them, saying, “Here!”

Jane stared at Ophiel, and ignored the orange box. “This isn’t a matter of keeping parental worries from your child. This is a strategic worry. I need to know if I need to worry about you, because what I learned about Shades in the last two days is very concerning.”

Erick came back to himself, briefly. He sent out to Poi, ‘I’ll be right back. Going to see Jane for a bit.’

‘Good. Thank you for the warning. See you later. Please put up a [Prismatic Ward] around yourself while you are there. I will alert the Headmaster.’

Erick smiled. ‘That’s fine.’ And then he said to Jane, “I’d rather have this conversation in person. Be right there.”

Jane smiled, and it was full of warmth. “Good. Me too.”

Erick had the Ophiel on site, who was at something like 6000 mana, spend all of that mana on filling Windy Manor with a [Prismatic Ward]. Dense air washed across Jane, as Erick began blipping to Oceanside. He briefly paused over the ocean, feeling the nice salty air as he hovered with his Handy Aura, and then he continued. It did not take long for him to reach the manor.

He stood in the living room, a few meters from Jane, and said, “Hey, honey. How’ve you been?”

Jane stood up, her smile seeming to fill the room with joy. She rushed into Erick’s arms. Erick laughed a little as he hugged his daughter. Jane just sighed out in relief.

Eventually, Jane pulled away, and said, “They weren’t lying. You do look twenty years younger.”

“Hah!” Erick asked, “Did I not tell you?”

She half-joked, half-admonished, “I think there’s quite a lot that you didn’t tell me.” She asked, “Did you eat that unicorn horn?”

“Yes.” Erick briefly flashed his entire body into ethereal light, with [Lightwalk], saying, “I have a lot to talk to you about.”

Jane sighed a little, still smiling. “Good. I’m glad you ate it.” She joked, “But where’re my chocolate chip cookies! Did that fall to the wayside, too?”

Erick laughed. “Oh, yes. Very, very far to the wayside.” And then he paused, then exclaimed, “You never said anything about chocolate chip cookies before! Where’s this coming from?”

“I’m trying to distract you from your problems for a moment or whatever.” She shrugged. “But I like chocolate, anyway, so yeah. I want chocolate now. Is that such a big surprise? Your care package reminded me that I like chocolate, sometimes. It’s not my favorite flavor, but it’s pretty high up there.”

Erick pointed to the garden, outside the window. “There’s tarip trees out there you can try to [Grow] into chocolate, too, you know. I got them planted and grown, but not much beyond that.”

Jane smirked. “You’re the archmage, Dad.”

Erick laughed. “You’re half a mage! Balance is magic enough, isn’t it?” He pointed at her fingers, saying, “And open that box. It’s got much better ones than those spherical things you’re wearing now.”

Jane clapped a little and hopped over to the stone box, smiling wide. She slipped open the cover, revealing two silver tori, perfectly sized for her fingers. She slipped off her old rings and put the new ones on. She glanced at the air, saying, “Plus 52 to every Stat! Holy shit, Dad.” She said, “I really need those Polymage abilities now. Or, you know what?” Her eyes glinted dark blue, as she said, “You should figure out those soulbound stones coming out of Candlepoint.”

“… What are those?”

“… Have you not looked up Candlepoint’s full item list?”

“Of course I have! But you know they’re all tricks, right?”

“Obviously, but they’re really interesting tricks. Sit down, Dad.” She said, “I’ll put on a pot of coftea.”

Erick sat down on the couch, next to Ophiel.

Jane moved into the kitchen, saying, “Hey, Dad?”

“Yeah?”

Jane grabbed a large glass jar of prepared coftea leaves from the kitchen. She popped the lid, saying, “I’m glad you came.”

He grinned, saying, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday!”

“I meant… To Veird. Well. Honestly. I meant on the car ride to what was supposed to be my future. And then everything else that came after. In a few more months, we’ll have been here for a whole year.” She added, “And I know I’ve said it before, but I had to say it again.”

“I’m glad I came with you, too.” Erick smiled softly. “Magic is really neat. Oh! I heard just the other day that Particle Magic’s integration to the Script has been decided.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Rozeta took my advice, but did her own thing. [Condense Particle] is the new Basic Tier. Spells that condense a specific element, like [Condense Hydrogen], have to be made from [Condense Particle]. Everything else comes after that.”

Jane was heating up water in a pot, as she said, “Huh. That’s… That’s pretty easy— Oh! That means that there’ll be a long recovery time for a failed spell.”

“Yeah.” Erick jokingly mocked, “But the Script was created to stop the abuses of the Old Wizards!”

Jane smiled. “Honestly, if it was created for that reason, then there wouldn’t be any magic at all.” She shrugged, adding, “But it probably was, and then Melemizargo said ‘nope!’ and broke it a bit.”

“Uh? Hmm.” Erick thought, while Jane poured hot water through coftea and a filter. Eventually, he said, “Maybe. He’s added all these new Stats, right? So that tracks. And I guess they’ve just never been able to fix the initial crack in the system? Huh.” Erick almost could consider Jane’s idea as correct, but then, unsure, he said, “That’s probably what happened? Hmm…” He decided, “No. Nope. It doesn’t track with everything I’ve seen.”

Jane laughed. “And what have you seen?”

“They created the Script to hold together the last remnants of their world, and the mana therein, and Melemizargo tried to destroy it all to get back to his destroyed universe, right?” He thought. He said, “Yes. That’s right.” He said, “Mana came along for the ride because— Now I’m not certain here— but I think gods and spirits and angels and demons and all manner of life just would not exist without mana. And Veird is much too large to support itself without magic. I think, if the Script was destroyed, that mana would fly away on solar winds, but before that even happened, the entire planet would crash together as the Underworld collapsed and people died under their own gravitational weight.”

“That’s a fun thought.” Jane said, “Have you told any of that to Kiri?”

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“Heck no. I’ve given her a lot of frights. To say that the entire planet is untenable under normal physics? No thank you.”

“Yeah… Now that you mention it, that’s probably what would happen if the Script vanished.” Jane smiled, as the coftea finished brewing. “So you’re sure you haven’t told that theory to anyone else?”

Erick saw the glints in Jane’s eyes. He said, “Don’t you go telling Kiri that, either! I’ve given her more than enough upsets to last a lifetime.”

She laughed. “I won’t.” She added, “I hadn’t even considered the planetary weight angle, though. That’s a scary sort of armageddon.” She asked, “But that just brings up the thought that if the Script is keeping the Underworld and the Surface supported, then the gods and Melemizargo would know of that issue. Would they really make a world so geologically unstable? Seems like asking for trouble down the line. How would you even prepare for such an— Ah.” A lightbulb must have gone off in Jane’s mind. She asked, “You saw the quest to make a vehicle capable of leaving Veird, didn’t you?”

Erick smiled. “Yeah. I did. That was the first thought that came to my mind, too, when I saw that quest. But then I got distracted by other affairs.” Erick said, “I don’t think there’s much of a worry, as long as that quest remains incomplete and Melemizargo has yet to kill the wrought off.”

Jane poured coftea for both of them and added milk to Erick’s. She brought them over, saying, “Have you ever read any of the literature of the Cult of the Dark Dragon?”

“No. I’ve purposefully stayed away.” Erick sipped his coftea, and it was good. Jane always brewed it best. He asked, “Why? Have you?”

Jane sipped her coftea, then said, “Yes. All of the bigger works. Gotta understand the enemy, after all.” She added, “And you actually have. ‘The Foreigner Mage’.”

“… What?”

“That little green book. You told me about it before. That’s one of the Shade recruitment tools out there. But it’s also a very truthful book.”

“… What.” Erick said, “No. Wait. Nooo. That’s written and published—”

“By shadow publishing houses across the world. Ha. Pun not intended.” She added, “That little green book is also considered widely true, so people use it, but are still punished for having it in their possession.”

Erick had no idea. He asked, “Really?”

“Yes.” Jane joked, “But what self-respecting archmage would call themselves that without a few banned tomes in their possession?”