094, 1/2

As the sun crested in the east, Erick gazed down upon desert sand through the many eyes of his Ophiel. The land was a blackened, burning stretch of soil, where mimic corpses burned right alongside spider bodies. Erick adjusted the wind, but instead of returning the breeze to the northerly wind common to Spur, he turned the wind off, while sending up a cascading white orb to reveal the survivors of his fire tornadoes. Quite a lot of blue dots appeared on the resulting map.

Erick was not responsible for the safety of the city when it came to all threats. The Guard existed for a reason. He was here on garbage duty, taking care of the largest piles of garbage, and mostly because he wanted to; these were his kills, after all.

With ten Ophiel and kilometers upon kilometers of spider bodies, and the occasional mimic, it was an easy sort of necessary job. Erick blew together corpses, then ignited them with [Cleansing Flame]. But [Cleansing Flame] dealt no damage, so while most corpses burned under phosphorous white fire, occasionally, white spiders walked out of the flame, unhurt. They were tiny things, but they were still deadly.

Erick threw [Force Bolt]s at them until they died. It took a few bolts to kill them, but both Erick and Ophiel ran [Hunter’s Instincts], and they had the map revealing the location of every spider, so the threat of any of them getting through the cleanup was very, very small.

As white fire passed through burnt, desiccated corpses, small spiders weren’t the only things to drop onto the sand. Glittering rads began to litter the Crystal Forest floor, in the wake of the fires. Glittering Jewels also littered the desert, picking up rads and attaching them to their bodies with expert telekinetic control. There was a lot to pick up, and a lot of the rads were a lot closer together than usual, so Jewels worked pretty fast, compared to how he worked when the corpses were tens of meters apart and he had to tear into the bodies to retrieve the rads himself.

(Apparently Jewels was a boy, according to Erick’s anthropomorphizing instincts.)

Erick asked Poi about delivering most of the rads to the bank, and Poi had delivered. Soon, piles and piles of rads were blipping into his account, but after the first hundred thousand rads, which was around 500,000 gold, or a million mana, Erick began diverting the wealth into his home. He needed resources for all of his upcoming enchantment experiments, after all.

Ophiels delivered rads to an empty room in Erick’s house, on the ground floor, gradually filling up a 3 meter by 2 meter room, one load of glittering loot at a time.

Kiri looked at the filling room, and said, “Uh. Erick. This is… extravagant.”

Erick looked in at the room with her. It was about a third full. He had to raise a stone divider in the doorway so that the pile wouldn’t spill out into the rest of the house. He offered, “I think I destroyed half of the rads. So it won’t be as bad as—”

An Ophiel blipped in, depositing a goodly pile of rads onto the sea of glittering white light. He blipped away, back to the battlefield.

“Okay.” Kiri said, “Uh… Let me recalculate.” She thought for a moment, then continued, “A single 10 mana rad is a little over 2 centimeters square. Almost all of the ones out there are this size. You can fit about 61,000 of those into a cubic meter. Ophiel has filled this place with about 6 square meters of rads already. Which means around 350,000 rads. Fully filling this room would mean placing over a million rads into this space. But since you killed over 2.5 million spiders… Or rather, half that for actual takeaway…” She paused. She said, “I think you’re gonna need a bigger room. Slightly bigger?”

Poi spoke up, “Taxes.”

Kiri nodded, saying, “That would get rid of a lot of it.”

Erick said, “I still have four months on that!”

Poi shrugged, smirking a little.

Another Ophiel blipped in, adding to the pile. It sounded like dumping ice onto ice.

Kiri said, “Whatever the case, piling them in a room is not a solution.”

Poi smiled slightly wider, saying, “Other cities are calling for your aid now that they can see what you can do. This ‘problem’ is only going to get worse.” He added, “The bank says they’re willing to take more rads, but you’re going to need to upgrade your account if you plan on doing stuff like this. They have protocols for archmage hauls, and they would like for you to avail yourself of their proper services.”

Erick did not miss the joy Poi took in calling ‘too much money’ a problem. Oh, what a problem to have! It was not lost on Erick how silly it was to fret over this money, but this much loot did place yet another target on his back. He certainly did not need this much loot in his house, or anywhere near his person. Erick gazed upon his pile of basically-gold, and wondered if this was why the archmages in Jane’s games always made big dungeons. To keep their too-much loot somewhere safe?

Another Ophiel dropped another pile of glittering rads into the room.

… Erick could make a dungeon. It would even be fine if it got looted by intrepid adventurers, as long as they didn’t take too much. He couldn’t just make one big dungeon, for precisely that reason…

He would have to make several dungeons in several locations, preferably in hard to reach places.

But.

No.

Not today. He had a much better use of these rads than sticking them in the ground somewhere. Right now, it wasn’t yet noon. That meant there was plenty of time to organize a lot of the rads out there into 1000 mana stone boxes, to exchange them for darkchips…

It was a plan, of a sort.

“Okay, so.” Erick said, “This is what I’m going to do. We’re going to turn in what’s still out there for darkchips.”

He outlined a plan, and got to work. Kiri helped, making the process go a lot smoother. He let this third room fill with rads, which should be more than enough to enchant with, for now, then he started having Ophiel [Stoneshape] appropriately sized boxes out of sand.

Soon, Erick had a multitude of stone boxes, each with an interior cavity measuring 14x14x10 centimeters. He lined the boxes in rows upon rows, out in the field. They were about the right size to ensure that a full box was about 100 rads, and that was about perfect—

Oh! There was a fun idea. [Flight of a Thousand Hands] was literally 1000 telekinetic, airy hands. On a whim, Erick controlled an exact 100 of the hands and grabbed exactly 100 rads. He put them in a box, and the box was perfectly full, if a little below the top. Erick smiled to himself. This way was much easier than counting out 100 at a time. He wasn’t going to count out 100 at a time, anyway; that’s why he made the stone boxes the correct size. But it was nice to know his calculations were correct.

These rads were worth 10 mana each, for a total worth of 1000 mana per box of 100. Each box was also worth 500 gold. Turning in grand rads to Candlepoint would be a lot easier, since there was no need to count anything, but none of the spiders had any of those, and grand rads were worth literally twice as much for the same amount 1000 mana that existed in one of these stone boxes. So Erick wasn’t going to be doing that.

Grand rads were worth 1000 mana and 1000 gold, flat rate, no matter their size, mainly because they were all variant sizes, shapes, and technical worths, but they were also the only rads that could regenerate their size and mana if left alone long enough. Smaller rads got used up when they were used to recharge magical items, like rods of [Treat Wounds] and [Prestidigitation] stoves. But grand rads could be set beside those same magical items to recharge the rads in those items, with only a little bit of destabilization themselves. That destabilization would recover with time, too. Even right now, Erick had at least three rods of [Treat Wounds] in various parts of the house, nestled beside grand rads, recharging.

Hardly anyone actually used grand rads for anything but currency or keeping their magical items functional, but all grand rads, no matter their size, regenerated their mana at the same rate, which was about 1 mana every minute. Hence their flat rate.

Erick wasn’t sure he agreed with the economics of that, but that’s what society did, so Erick participated how society declared he could participate. He was absolutely sure that if he went around looking for buyers or looking for sellers in the less up-and-up markets of the world, that he could get around the 1000gold flat rate. But who had time for that, right now? Besides, Erick was dealing with 10 mana rads, and those were a flat 5 gold. Erick was absolutely sure that he could never get around that price; it seemed rather set in stone.

… Erick turned his attention back toward the stone boxes sitting out in the desert. Jewels had been dumping stones into the boxes without care for precision, so Erick had Ophiel Handy Aura smooth out the count. Ophiel quickly got the hang of using Erick’s 100 hand Handy Aura trick. He was a smart little [Familiar], for sure.

Hours passed, as Erick’s assembly line of summons did more work than Erick would have ever done himself. Seriously. This was pure grunt work. Thank the gods for summons.

When the corpses were gone and the rads were all collected, Erick ended up with 121 rows of 100 boxes, each box filled with 100 rads. The small field of boxes took up roughly 18 meters by 14 meters of space.

Over 1.2 million rads! 12.1 million mana! 12,100 darkchips! Theoretically.

Sunset was still several hours away, though, so Erick couldn’t just leave his loot sitting out in the open. So with a bit of blipping, [Stoneshape]ing, and [Prismatic Ward]ing, Erick dropped the rads off in another location, closer to Candlepoint, but not too close. They were certainly out of sight, though.

Once that was done, Erick went on to the next project: The corpses and rads and everything else he had left out in front of Kal’Duresh. He had been a bit distracted when he was completing that job, what with Al and the Ballooning Spider attack on Spur happening at the same time. He had left that job mostly unfinished. If people had stolen from the piles of half-[Cleansing Flame]d corpses, he didn’t really care, but he was still going to get his gold while he could.

He had Poi contact the Baroness’s people, and they cleared Erick for action. He immediately set out cleaning up the rest of his spider-tornado mess. Soon, Ophiels were blowing scattered piles of bodies into bigger piles, while spreading white flames, as quartz Jewels gathered glittering prizes from the sand. When all was said and done, the math proved that some people had stolen from the pile. Erick only ended up with another 615,000 rads out of 2 million spider kills, but that was okay. Erick didn’t need the money, but he did put the extra 15,000 rads into the rad room of his house, to make his deposit at Candlepoint a nice, round number. His total expected darkchip return bloomed to 18,100. If his count was a bit off, that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if Candlepoint disputed his count too much, either.

He certainly didn’t care about the prizes of Candlepoint. But maybe he should? He could get something, maybe? Eh. They were all traps. Best not to touch those sorts of things.

Erick paused, sitting in his library, while reading about weather and enchanting, and simultaneously organizing Ophiels and Jewels. He looked up at nothing in particular, and said, “I need to speak to the Mage Trio before I deliver these rads.”

As if the universe decided to compound his workload, Poi stepped to the door to the library. He said, “Guildmaster Fork Oreellico sends word that the paperwork is done on his end, and they’re ready to talk Spatial magic.”

Erick looked from his open books, to Poi. “… What?”

“I told you about them this morning?”

Erick chuckled and sighed at the same time. “A little multitasking is a good thing, but my gods.”

“Shall I inform them you are busy?”

“No. I can meet them now. I have, what? Three hours till sunset? If they think it’s going to last longer than that, I need to reschedule.”

Poi nodded, then looked to the air. Tendrils of intent radiated from his head, into the manasphere. After a moment, he turned to Erick. “They can make it quick. They have a primer to go over. An initial talk might take an hour or so. More can be planned later.”

Erick Handy Aura’d his books away, then got up, saying, “Let’s go.”

 

– – – –

 

The first floor of the Wayfarer’s Guildhouse was a large open area of blue tile and people either delivering goods, picking up goods, or Wayfarers blipping in or out, guiding large groups of people to their next destination. Erick had learned about the Wayfarers in his time learning about Spatial Magic, and almost every one of them could [Teleport] anywhere from ten to twenty times as far as he could, with the basic [Teleport] spell. These people blipping in and out were truly coming from other cities on Glaquin; they were not simply at the end of their multiple thousand kilometer blip journeys.

Erick was slightly jealous, but he liked Particle Mage too much to ever give it up. He was a Particle Mage, through and through.

The second floor of the Guildhouse was full of stock and boxes and shipments, going wherever they were going, either in the hands of individuals, or on large [Teleporting Platforms], like Erick’s own. The Guildmaster’s office was on this floor, but when Erick showed up to the Guildhouse, his mauvescaled guide took him up the stairs, past the second floor, onto the third floor.

The third floor was full of dormitories. Erick didn’t spend much time here; just long enough for his guide to tell him what he was looking at, as he peered down a hallway filled with doors.

The fourth floor was full of classrooms. Erick’s guide showed him past a few rooms where chalkboards were full of maths of differing difficulty. In some rooms, teachers taught handfuls of students the easier math, while in others, graduate kids went over their own, much more complicated formulae. The mauvescale left Erick, Poi, Kiri, and Teressa, at the large, open doors to a decently appointed, windowless room. An oval table with a wooden top occupied half of the space, while three people and their chalkboards occupied the other half.

Erick recognized Guildmaster Fork, the brownscale son of Apogee, but he was wearing what looked like formal robes. His clothes were sky blue, and well made. Erick felt a pang of self consciousness, because the other two people in the room were also wearing the same type of high quality robes as Fork. One was an incani man of dark grey skin and horns, while the other was a brown skinned human man. Both of the new people looked to be in their 50s. Erick’s mauvescale guide stepped back, and excused herself, as the three people in the room looked at Erick.

Fork said with a smile, “Welcome, Archmage Flatt. Do come in.”

Erick walked in, saying, “Hello, Guildmaster Oreellico.” He looked to the other two people. “Hello…”

Fork gestured to the incani man, saying, “Guildmaster Rexarix, of Bend, of Old Kingdom of the Wasteland Kingdoms.”

Erick said, “Hello,” as Rexarix bowed slightly, saying, “Greetings.”

Fork gestured to the human, saying, “Guildmaster Fieldsmith, of Odaali.”

Erick smiled wide, exclaiming, “Odaali?! Heeey! Hello! How’s it going in Odaali?”

Fieldsmith smirked a little, then spoke with a deep, resonant voice, “Much better now that the city isn’t full of killer plants. The reconstruction efforts have returned the city to its former glory, but our populace will still take decades to recover.”

The levity of the moment rapidly passed, as Erick suddenly recognized a dissonance. There was a human and an incani, ostensibly from other sides of the war, standing next to each other. In the same room. Without killing each other? Erick couldn’t help himself; he looked to the incani man, trying to understand. Everyone noticed.

Fork frowned a little. Fieldsmith raised his eyebrows, as he banished a smirk from his face.

Rexarix paused for a second, then said, “Oh. You don’t know?” He glanced down to the silver star on Erick’s chest, saying, “Bend and the Wayfarer’s Guild have always been strong opponents of the Quiet War. After the Daydropper Massacre, Bend was the first Kingdom to step forward and ask for open discussions with the Republic. It is my understanding that your [Zone of Peace] was instrumental in ensuring that such a talk could happen, at all. Thank you for that. You prevented the loss of a great many lives.”

“Oh.” Erick felt like an ass. He tried to keep that emotion off of his face, but likely failed. “Ah. Yeah. I did not know that.” He added, “Pardon my ignorance. I don’t know a lot about geography or history.” Erick tried a joke, “My schooling was not exactly local.”

“Understandable.” Rexarix spoke with levity in his voice, saying, “My schooling was quite distant as well, but not as distant as yours.”

Erick smiled. Okay. This was good. Rexarix seemed nice. Social faux pas successfully brushed over!

Fieldsmith spoke up, “Bend and the Guild have always been opponents of the Quiet War, but I’m also partially representing Odaali. We wish to move past this nastiness, so even if this [Gate] project fails, we will have been working with the other side in a positive manner, which is almost a win.”

Rexarix nodded.

“Oh?” Erick said, taken aback. “Are you… suggesting that there’ll be a [Gate] between…?” He looked back and forth between the human and the incani, unsure how to even finish his question.

“Not yet.” Fieldsmith said, “Maybe after a hundred years of peace.”

“The idea is for smaller, national-only [Gate] systems, for a while.” Rexarix said, “In order to appease parties that are not here, a neutral Wayfarer Guildmaster of a Republic branch and a Kingdom branch have been tagged to ensure that neutrality remains intact, and the scope remains small throughout all stages of this theoretical [Gate] system.” He added, “But we have to create the [Gate] first!”

Stolen story; please report.

Erick smiled. “That would be useful, yes.”

Fork gestured toward the chairs, near the table, asking, “Let us sit?” He looked past Erick, to the doors of the room, where Teressa, Poi, and Kiri stood. “We’ll put up sound barriers, too, but these secrets are not to be shared.”

Erick had already expected this sort of pressure from this meeting, so he played along how he had already instructed his people to play along. “I doubt any of them would speak of any of this, but Teressa? Can you stay outside?” Teressa nodded, then stepped outside of the room, while Erick continued, “Kiri knows a lot more of your magic, and will be able to help me understand more of this conversation, later.” He added, “Poi hardly ever speaks.”

Fork said, “I must insist.”

Erick frowned. He had hoped that Kiri could stay, but that looked to be too much. He said, “Poi will stay.”

Fork nodded, while Rexarix and Fieldsmith gave silent assents. Erick turned to Kiri. The young greenscale did her best not to pout, as she walked out of the room. She closed the door behind her. When it clicked shut, and the casual sounds of the rest of the building muted somewhat, Fork raised his hand, spilling magic into the room. The walls took a shimmer to them, and the rest of the world went dead silent. [Silent Ward]s were weird. Hearing nothing but the tiny sounds of those in the room was slightly unnerving. Ophiel, sitting on Erick’s shoulder, twittered a bit with tiny flute sounds, disliking the silence.

Fork gestured to the seats again. This time, the four of them sat down, while Poi stood to the side of the room, playing the part of furniture.

Fork said, “A lot more people are tagged to be involved in this, if it happens. Renarix and Fieldsmith are here for who they are, in addition to who they may come to represent. The politics involved in this are going to be the stuff of nightmares, Archmage Flatt.”

Fieldsmith said, “When there’s no fruit on the trees, no one argues over ownership. But we hope for fruit, so the arguing has already begun.”

Erick said, “I hope to not be too involved in all of that.”

Rexarix said, “You likely won’t.”

“Hopefully not,” agreed Fieldsmith.

Erick nodded, then he said, “So. [Gate]. No one actually knows how the spell works? Everyone who has ever had it has gotten the spell through spending some amount of points on the Class Ability? Do I have that right?”

Fork and Fieldsmith spoke at the same time, saying, “Yes,” and “As far as I know.”

Rexarix said, “Broadly. Yes.” As the other two turned to Rexarix, Rexarix took the lead, saying, “We have several people in our organization who are on the Quest, but almost no one makes it to the end. And then, even if you make it to the actual Quest, it costs 10 points to buy, or the completion of an impossible task. Getting to that Quest is a whole extra matter, too. The Quest Chain begins with [Teleport Object]. This is of a middling difficulty, but you cannot use the one in the Script, and if you fail to make it properly, then the next part of the Quest is locked to you forever. Because then you need [Teleport Other]. This is exceedingly difficult, with only the best Wayfarers or Spatial Mages able to achieve such a skill. Some people find themselves incapable of creating both, locked, as it were, to one or the other. But if you make it past this hurdle, then you must either deepen your understanding of Spatial magic, or some other trigger happens, and you get the [Gate] Quest.” He huffed a little, adding, “Which is just infuriating. No one knows what the trigger for the Quest is, exactly. And that’s only part of the problem.” He looked to Fieldsmith. “The book?”

Fieldsmith curved his hand through the air, with a quick, practiced motion, pulling a book out of some other place. It was a light tome, maybe a handspan square, an inch thick, with a plain black cover. He said, “A collected volume of [Gate] wielders of the Wayfarer’s Guild, and how they achieved [Gate].” He held the book tightly in one hand, while he said, “This is a very dangerous book. Not only because of [Teleport Other], as a necessary part of getting [Gate], but because it lays out all of our most secret methodologies. But, it has no actual maths, so it’s practically useless to almost everyone.”

When Fieldsmith mentioned ‘no maths’, Erick felt as though the world opened for him. This was perfect.