110, 1/2 + map of Ar’Kendrithyst

Dressed in good clothes, but wrapped in his white [Conjure Armor], Erick’s booted feet sunk ever so slightly into the sands of the Crystal Forest. To the left and the right were shadows, deep and threatening, but they did not reach him, for the light of the sun and the Dead City stretched out through the Crack, to light the way forward, into danger, into the dragon’s maw. Wind flowed through the red and purple break in the wall, shredding on crystal, whistling a tune of desolation.

A woman stood in the Crack, waiting for Erick to acknowledge her, or whatever it was she was waiting for.

Wild, white hair. Tanned skin. Shimmering black clothes, that were almost like a tuxedo. Shade Fallopolis held a spike of Kendrithyst in her left hand, as she called out a welcome, her bright white eyes shining even brighter as she Named Erick like he was a phenomenon, instead of a person. A ‘Fire of the Age’. There was surely to be more such Naming as the spectacle of Shadow’s Feast played out over the next ten days, but Erick was reasonably prepared.

The Feast would be ten days for Erick, but for the rest of the world, it would be 12 hours. He had no idea what would happen during most of it, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. If he truly was ‘Untouchable’ (yet another Name), then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Fallopolis lowered her staff, and said, “There are some rules.”

Erick already knew this. He countered, “I have to be inside the city before the party starts. The sun is about to set, and you are blocking the way.”

She scrunched her face into a delightful, old-woman smile, saying, “All true! And yet, I will continue to block your way until such time as I decide to let you into my home.”

“Please be quick with your rules, then.”

Fallopolis nodded, then said, “First, I demand some chocolate, then some flowers, and only then, will we walk together to the Spire, and to the Palace District.”

“… Are you to be my plus-1?”

“We will have a day to figure that out as the journey is just as important as the destination. But for now: I want to be your Plus-1.” Fallopolis twilled her free hand through the air, adding a bit of whimsy to her voice, as she added, “You may pick another at the party; there is no rule against indulging in a healthy sexual appetite.”

Skipping right over the idea that he would want to bed a murderer like her, Erick said, “Then I have my own rules.” Not bothering to wait for a confirmation of his ability to request his own rules, he demanded, “There will be no anger over the littlest things, no torturing of innocents or people with lesser power than you in my presence or to my knowledge, and none of that cursing nonsense that I heard you committed against Allan, and that I am sure you have committed against many others.”

Fallopolis had almost said something when Erick demanded his own set of rules, but when he barreled right over her attempt to speak, she merely pursed her lips in surprise. Then came a coy smile. “You’re a man after my own heart. I accept.”

With a series of thoughts, Erick directed three spare Ophiel to blip to three different locations, whereupon he gathered bluebell stalks, purple flarefire flowers, and sweetred rushes. The three flower stalks grew in a few different places in Spur, from the Garden and used as a spice, to the Adventurer’s District, to inside flowerbeds his new noble neighbors had constructed then filled. Erick had taken notice of them all in his various walks through the city, for they were each beautiful, smelled lovely, and all reminded him of snapdragons, with their hundred tiny flowers radiating from thick stalks. They would make a fine bouquet.

Those cuttings landed in Erick’s quick Handy Aura grasp. While another Ophiel began copying some chocolate bars and cakes out of the tray of desserts for the party, Erick turned the flowers into a proper arrangement.

Not ten seconds after Fallopolis’s agreement, Erick still stood five meters from the woman, but he was no longer empty-handed. One held a splash of red, violet, and blue flowers, wrapped in a bit of conjured twine, while the other hand held a stone box, full of chocolate items. With a final touch, Erick cast a [Cooling Ward] upon the inside of the box.

Fallopolis smiled the whole while. She let go of the kendrithyst staff to let it float to her side, as she held her hands forward, making grasping motions with both. She teased, “You have to give them to me, Erick. I won’t take anything from you.”

Erick breathed deep, and saw the final edge of the sun threaten to vanish beyond the curve of the crystal metropolis, beyond the Crack. He stepped forward, crossing into the Crack proper, edging below the overhang of the wall above. Now one meter from Fallopolis, he looked the woman in her white eyes…

… And handed her the chocolate and flowers.

She took them, squealing a little, as she backed up, then rushed down the sands, playfully racing down the red skyroad that led further into the city, calling out, “Get all the way in, or the Barrier Magic will kill you!”

Erick looked left and right, and saw something in the red-purple Crack. There waited a glittering darkness, deeper than the shadows that were already there, prowling the crystal corridor.

Fallopolis, now down upon the red skyroad leading further into the city, and all the way out of the Crack, called out, “I’m not joking! Dying to your own foolishness is something we will not prevent.”

Erick stepped forward—

A bar of void-dark blackness, stretched behind him, and through a suddenly-dispersed Ophiel, covering the outermost shell of the wall of Ar’Kendrithyst. Erick rapidly pulled his clothes and food and bags inward, out of the way, and he, too, raced down the sands, spilling into the city. And then another bar appeared, crossing the first, like someone was weaving threads across the entrance—

Shadow Spiders, moving faster than the eye could see, but Ophiel had a hundred eyes, and some of them were still outside the Crack. They watched as spiders leapt the Crack, and continued on along the wall, spreading dark threads as they passed.

Erick stepped onto the red skyroad, and kept moving forward. His Ophiel followed, safe, but the ones outside were slashed in half, as they tried to pass through where there were no threads, only to have a spider impact them like they weren’t even there.

Void-dark threads expanded, soaking together—

Erick rushed into the city, proper, resummoning the few Ophiel he had lost. And then he noticed Fallopolis grinning at him. He was on a collision course with the Shade. With an ungainly shift to the left, Erick avoided the unwanted interaction. His Ophiel flowed forward around him, providing eyes in every direction.

Centering himself and standing less awkwardly, Erick looked to the Shade. The Shade smirked, as her flowers and box of chocolates hovered to one side, and her crystal staff hovered on the other. She lifted a finger, and as Erick’s heart suddenly pumped hard, she angled her finger further upward.

With Ophiel, he looked in every direction. He never took his eyes off the Shade.

In fact, he should not have been on a collision course with her, at all. She had moved into his way. But, whatever. She was playing power games, and Erick would have to let her. Erick focused in every direction, with all of his Ophiels’ eyes.

Down, were shadows, crawling in the glowing, purple kendrithyst. Behind him was the crystal-side of the wall, heading off into the distance. To the left, was the Crack, which was now completely filled with shadows. From one second to the next, the shadows shifted. The Crack vanished, as red-purple kendrithyst rapidly filled in the break, turning the red skyroad under them into a simple avenue that ended in a T intersection, with one part heading directly into the city, to Forward Base, the northern part heading down on a descending road that may or may not have led to Fallopolis’s ‘home’, and the southern part traveling along the inside of the wall, like a ledge hugging a crystal mountain.

Erick briefly regarded the city on his right as he also looked skyward, following Fallopolis’s finger.

Ar’Kendrithyst was as beautiful as it was deadly. Spires of glowing red-purple crystal reached into the dark sky, while millions of stars lit the night. It was an impossible sight; one that he didn’t see with his own eyes, but Ophiel’s didn’t suffer from mortal problems such as light blindness.

And then the sky changed.

What appeared in the sky were not the three moons of Veird.

They were planets.

What once was black expanse, gave space over to a bright green and blue orb. Continents of unfamiliar shapes appeared as Darkness retreated. Erick couldn’t see it with his own eyes, but with a few Ophiels turning themselves into little more than an organization of giant eyes and tiny wings, Erick saw a lot.

Cities on coasts. Floating mountain ranges skipping over deserts. Whale pods swimming in oceans.

And then Erick realized he was not looking at a planet. It was shaped like an orb, yes, but those oceans were too deep to be real, their depths too visible to be anything but an artistic creation, while the continents floated over the waters, and the waters floated over the land. It was a place kept in harmony with itself, and though there was a passing resemblance to a normal planet like the one Erick grew up on, the physics of this illusion in the sky were completely alien.

Its physics were like Veird, but taken to the next magnitude of crazy. Exposed Underworlds. Oceans floating over surface continents—

The darkness above pulled further back, revealing another ‘planet’ like the first, but with land made of light and oceans made of fire. It was like looking at the sun, up close, but very much not.

Another orb appeared. Ice and wind.

Another orb. It was a city. That was all Erick could tell. Buildings and waterways and very few green spaces, but mostly buildings. Spires of metal. The shimmer of glass. Lights everywhere. Those lights set the city aglow, making it appear as an illuminated Jackson Pollock painting.

More cities appeared, each shaped without regard for the physical universe Erick grew up knowing, and believing to be the only shape that reality could take. None of the later ones to appear were as large as the first to appear, but appear they did, filling in the black space above.

Erick glanced to Fallopolis, as she snapped a piece of chocolate off of a bar and had a bite. She smirked at Erick, and returned her attention to the sky, seeming to enjoy the spectacle of it all.

The sky shifted again.

A flow took hold of the universe above. A liquid drama. A density that moved, but barred no sight, and impeded no light. Erick recognized the sight immediately. He had seen paintings and read stories, but he had never seen a true representation of what the Mana Ocean actually was. And now he had.

The Mana Ocean appeared in the sky and Erick felt that if he wanted to, he could step into the air, and swim to the city planet, float to the world of light, plunge into the depths of the water and stone world to seek a new existence untouched by mortal hands. But it was an illusion. It had to be.

Erick blinked, and the grip of an unknown magic broke. He looked up again, and saw the same sights, but he knew them for facsimile. Why would he want to go exploring any of that? He liked living in Spur. He wasn’t an adventurer, like Jane.

He turned to Fallopolis. Somehow, he had taken his real eyes off of the Shade, and turned his sight toward the illusions above. A flush of adrenaline raced through his chest.

Fallopolis stared at the sky, too, with a dejected look about her. And then the moment passed. She was a Shade again, with bright white eyes. She turned to regard Erick with a cold countenance. She said, “It’s an illusion to give us a taste of what we’re trying to achieve. Some choose to lose themselves in this one week a year, staring at the sky and what could be, but never coming out into the open, otherwise.”

Erick felt like arguing against the implication that Shades were hermits, and so he did, “And you’re going to tell me that these ‘hidden ones’ are more the style of true Shades? That they’re not the megalomaniac killers who are the front of your whole Kendrithyst city operation, that you do this to better hide your cult’s true intent? That they’re good guys?” He sarcastically asked, “What do they do? Give money to charity?”

Fallopolis smiled wide, and then wider. When Erick was done with his mini-rant, she said, “Completely wrong! They’re all irredeemable killers and altogether awful people. Not a single one of them deserves power, but they all have it anyway. Even those hidden Shades just have hidden operations, inciting horror and pain the world over, all in an attempt to bring down the Script—” She pointed upward. “—And to bring that back.”

“You, too?”

“Of course!” She said, “I usually work to kill other Shades and take their stuff, though. That’s my shtick.”

“I’ve heard that before. Tell me: how is that supposed to work?”

“Usually, I end up turning someone’s project on their head, and they solidify their weaknesses. Or, I win, and take what they worked to achieve. Outside of the City, this means I kill a hundred people here, end a family line there. Or backstab a colleague just as they’re about to realize some important goal, and then I take their stuff.” She shrugged. “That’s the rare event. Most of us stick to Kendrithyst, consolidating our resources and planting prizes for those with the power to take them. To that end, the most common thing I do is to lead a team of adventurers into a project inside Kendrithyst, and have them either die or do my dirty work for me. Fun times!”

Erick had a hard time keeping his emotions in check. He wanted to rage against Fallopolis’s casual disregard for others. He wanted to harm her for her confessed crimes. But he calmed himself, and asked, “Have you ever considered that people are valuable resources, and working with civilization instead of toppling it is a much more prudent goal?”

With a wide smile, same as before, and highly reminiscent of a teacher instructing a student who understands everything the teacher says, she said, “We already work with civilization, Erick. That is what we do. We make people better than they were before by killing those that don’t deserve to live.” She added, “You would kill the killers, and the corrupt, and the dangerous, but that’s just a variation on the various Shades out there who kills those of every type who fail to live up to their potential, be their crimes those of uselessness, stupidity, or even volatility. If they survive, then they’re not what we thought they were; they’re qualified to live. You and I, and us, we just have different lines in the tunnels between acceptable and non.”

All anger fled, to be replaced with a coldness, and a certainty.

Even if Fallopolis’s words were true, which Erick did not believe for a second, Fallopolis was acting up for someone. There were no [Scry] orbs hanging around them, but Erick didn’t believe that meant no one was watching.

Fallopolis was acting up for someone.

For him, to convince him of her lies? To convince him of some other thing?

For someone else, to convince them of her own intentions?

Probably the latter.

Or maybe both. Or neither.

Erick had no real base to draw upon when it came to Fallopolis. He had spoken to Killzone for a while, about every Shade there was, and about what to expect going into this Shadow’s Feast. Jane had spoken of her own time inside Ar’Kendrithyst, as well. Everyone knew a little bit about Ar’Kendrithyst, and Erick had heard a lot over the last year. One of the things everyone agreed upon was that the Shades were dangerous truth tellers, who spoke in candied half-truths and believable perspectives, as much as they could. They only lied when they respected the person they were talking to.

Killzone had told Erick that the Shades he would meet might tell the truth in the beginning, but the lies would come out soon enough. Right now, Fallopolis was likely trying to manipulate him with a partial truth.

With a gleam in her glowing white eyes, Fallopolis asked, “You’re not going to refute me?”

“I know perfectly well where my line lies, but I’ve seen people with nothing become better than who they were before. Lost souls high on drugs to get away from their lives, or behind bars and waiting for a judge to sentence them to life in prison. Rape victims too depressed to move on with their lives. They needed help, and I gave them that help, and sometimes I failed, but sometimes I succeeded and the world was a bit better for it.” Erick demanded, “What good is the harm you do when life itself is more than harmful enough to temper or break the people living it?”

“You overestimate our impact.”

“Monsters kill people.” He said, “You tempt people to your city to test them, and kill those who fail. Those who succeed gain items you release into the world with the intent to cause damage long after they’ve left your power, like the Sword Staff, or other artifacts.”

“You release artifacts into the world, too.”

“Don’t even try to equate the two. It is a disingenuous argument.”

“Your Particle Magic killed Odaali, Erick, for you just opened the door, exactly like any good Fire of the Age, or Shade. And then people were people. Your argument is the disingenuous one.” Fallopolis said, “If anyone should be fielding this question, it should be Rozeta, for we Shades have been trying to destroy the inequality of the Script and all the empowerments you seem to detest, for a long, long time.”

Erick almost retorted, but a strange shadow appeared on the glowing red road, not a hundred meters away. He turned a few more Ophiel eyes toward the blot in the red brightness. Fallopolis noticed.

She waved an arm wide, saying, “And here’s the bag boy! You took your sweet time.”

The blot moved forward and stopped ten meters away. It stepped up from the ground, resolving into a thin human man, with a wrinkled face and greying hair. The first noticeable thing about him were his clothes, for Fallopolis wore the same thing, but Fallopolis’ outfit was downright shabby, compared to his. And then Erick noticed his long arms and legs, as though he had been stretched, more than slightly.

The man regarded Erick with eyes that were grey pits of light. “My Queen wishes to welcome you to Kendrithyst.” Two more blots appeared behind the man. They stepped up to reveal younger, shorter butlers, or whatever they were. The first man asked, “If you would be so kind, would you please allow this one to take your bags? They will be ready for you at the Palace.”

“… No thank you.”

The butler looked ready to sigh, but instead, he turned to Fallopolis.

Erick turned to Fallopolis, too.

Fallopolis frowned at everyone, then said to Erick, “You’re going to be attacked before you reach the Palace. Best give him most of your things unless you would prefer to arrive at the Palace without dessert. Queen will not like it if you don’t bring her what she asked for.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Erick had a refusal on the tip of his tongue, but this was not something he was willing to upset someone over. So instead, he asked Fallopolis, “Can I trust you at your overt words?”

Fallopolis stood up a bit straighter, as she blushed. “Ooh?” She put a hand to the side of her face, as if in thought. “Well.” She lowered her hand. Unsure, “I guess? Yes.” With a triumphant nod, she decided, “You can trust everything I say to be true, from here on out.”

Erick asked, “Are these really porters for Queen? They’re wearing your outfit.”

“Ha!” With a sly smile, she said, “Yes. They truly are her porters. Whatever you give them will go right to Queen, while you and I must take the longer, walking route.” She chided, “And apparently I need to take a slightly longer route than you!” She tugged at her outfit, saying, “I’ll have you know that this was my outfit first.” She gestured at the butlers, adding, “They look like that because they are a power play by the Queen, who takes every opportunity she can to shame me.”

Erick acknowledged the powerful monster in human guise, then turned to the others monsters in human guise, and floated his luggage-carrying Ophiel forward. With a few easy set-downs, Erick laid down most of his clothes and his glass-covered dessert tray. He kept one bag back, for it held his essentials; a few miscellaneous items, a jug of water he could [Duplicate], a few food items, and a few chocolate bars, just in case he needed a back-up dessert.

Erick had studied a map of Ar’Kendrithyst before he came. He knew the Palace District laid to the far south of the Dead City, over a hundred and twenty kilometers away. Past the Spire, where the Shades ruled the Dead city, and past Umber Street, where Bulgan rose to power. Past the Garden, which Treant took from Planter when Champion Yetta came and killed him. Past the Armory and three different lakes and a hundred other smaller places Erick had heard of from his daughter, or from Killzone.

For there would be no blipping to the party.

Because, though Erick barely noticed the tingling against his skin, it was there. Either Fallopolis or someone else had deployed their Blessing, disallowing all Spatial magic. It hadn’t been active in the beginning, but it was active after the wall closed…

Erick asked Fallopolis, “Is that your Blessing?”

“Nope!” She smirked, saying, “That’s part of the preparations for the Feast.” With her kendrithyst staff, she pointed to the sky. “If you can guess which plane I designed, then I’ll reward you with something special!” She turned shadowy, saying, “Be right back, gotta change!”

Fallopolis vanished from sight.

Erick turned his full attention to the butlers. They had picked up the luggage he had given them, but they had yet to leave. They were just sort of… waiting. Perhaps for Erick to say something? So he said, “Thank you for taking my things to the Palace. I look forward to meeting Queen.”

The lead one spoke, “Queen welcomes you to Kendrithyst, and to Shadow’s Feast.”

His words said, the butler and his entourage dropped into the red road, all at the same time. Their three shadowy blots zipped away, faster than Erick could track them, but not too fast for his Ophiel. They passed beyond sight when they got half a kilometer down the road, and turned right into a crystal tower, to vanish down into the depths.

And Erick was alone.

Maybe.

He took the time to gaze upon the city, again, since it was beautiful, and this was a calm moment.

Glowing red spires of crystal turned purple in the edges and down below, while the crystal skyroad ahead of him was a bit more muted in its brilliance. And now that he looked, he saw that different spires were different shades of red; the road was actually crimson. A real good color for Strength Stat enchantments, actually. There were shadows crawling inside every glowing tower and every crystal structure, but that was par for the course, for Ar’Kendrithyst. Nothing too unusual, there. The gentle undulation of the shadows reminded Erick of crashing ocean waves, or maybe ink swirling in water, or maybe… He wasn’t quite sure.

Erick stepped a little to the side of the red road underfoot, and looked down.