118, 1/2

The pair of them had moved outside of the house, to a plot of grasslands south of Quilatalap’s cottage, a little over a kilometer away. It was a nice place, with rolling green hills and scattered trees. It was a daunting area, though, for just a little bit away rose the 30 kilometer crystal cliffs that bounded the southern edge of the Palace District. Intellectually, those cliffs were so tall and so large that they seemed to be directly above, ready to crush down at any second. But the rainbow auroras hanging in the air blocked most of that enormity from sight. Thanks to those pretty lights, it was easy to put out of mind all of the danger looming all around.

And then there was magic, to completely distract him from the daily trauma of living in this land.

So let’s just forget about the impending deaths and destruction for a little while.

Quilatalap had offered to fill some deficiencies in Erick’s repertoire, and Erick had readily accepted. So here they were.

Quilatalap asked, “Have you made much ‘tricking magic’?”

“Not really, but!” Erick enthusiastically said, “It’s really quite interesting that you can trick the Script into cutting the spells of another mage— No. Wait…” Erick asked, “Is that what is happening with tricking magic?”

Quilatalap smiled. “The Script isn’t as limiting as some people would have you believe. At its heart, the Script is about chopping down highs and evening out lows, and streamlining spellwork. Tricking magic has also been streamlined to a certain degree, but tricking magic itself is as old as magic, and it hasn’t changed much since the Darkness first helped us to learn the first spells.”

“Right! Okay. Well. I have done some of this tricking magic before.” Erick popped out a few blue boxes, saying, “I learned about these [Intent Understanding] and [Spell Breaker] from another. And then I made this [Grand Dispel] from some of that.”

Quilatalap raised an eyebrow as he looked upon [Grand Dispel]. “This one. This is a good spell.” He dismissed the boxes, saying, “You won’t be able to make a [Grand Dispel] much better without going deep into Blood Magic or Wizardry. Your multiplier could have been larger, but you have a chaining sort-of [Dispel] instead. Don’t try to remake that; you’ll never get better. It’s really strong.” He said, “But, that said, [Grand Dispel] seems like an end-stage magic, to me. You might be able to work some higher spells out of that eventually, but don’t try for those today. Today, we’ll do the rest of these tricky [Dispel]s with [Spell Breaker] as the base magic.

“You’re going to want to make eight spells.

“Six spells, one spell aligned against each element, using the respective Elemental Shape. What you do is you take your [Stoneshape], for instance, invert it, and then attach it to your [Spell Breaker]. You will be decreasing [Spell Breaker]’s versatility of working against any small magic, to instead fully meld with all Stone-derived magics. As a word of caution: for any normal spell, this resulting ‘[Stone Breaker]’ will work just fine. For specialty spells, like when facing someone with a [Domain of Stone], you will have trouble making [Stone Breaker] work.

“These first six spells aren’t very great for the simple fact that a boulder thrown at you is still a boulder thrown at you. But a [Stone Breaker] against a spell-empowered wall of stone will destroy that wall of stone for much less than any other option. A [Grand Fireball], packed with a hundred [Force Bombs] and flying at your face, can be turned into a puff of flame with a properly made [Fire Breaker].

“Etcetera. Etcetera.

“The seventh spell is [Force Breaker]. The first six spells are easy to make, but this one is a complicated little spell. For this one, I recommend inverting [Force Wall], [Envelop Item], [Conjure Armor], and [Conjure Weapon], because those four spells are the most [Dispel] resistant Force spells in the Script, and the ability to strip a melee attacker of their weapons and defenses is often necessary.

“The eighth spell is [Ward Destruction]. Now this one is truly complicated, for [Ward] is among the most complicated spells out there, simply because it is so varied. I suggest trying this spell after you figure out everything there is to make with the base [Ward] spell, and more than a few other [Elemental Breaker] spells. You will know you have figured [Ward] out, when you are able to make a good version of every kind of [Ward] described in that way-too-big blue box.

“When you get to that point, then you just invert all of those various ideas into one coherent whole, and combine it with [Spell Breaker]. Thus, you will get [Ward Breaker].

“None of these spells should cost you more than 50 mana, if you’ve made them right. But they will be… What tier is your [Spell Breaker]? Tier four?”

“Tier four,” Erick said.

“So a thousand days to try again if you get any of these spells wrong.” Quilatalap said, “The only one that is truly necessary is [Ward Breaker]. You’re going to want to know every part of that spell before you try for that one. Better to spend a year experimenting, and then get it right, instead of almost three years in downtime.”

Erick thought for a moment. He asked, “So when you say ‘Invert’, what does that mean, exactly?” He added, “Also: Is there some way to [Teleport Spell]? I wanted [Spelleport] for the longest time, and if anything is tricking magic, that should certainly qualify.”

Quilatalap smirked, then said, “Inversion of a magic is rather simple to understand, now that you have a [Mana Sight]. And one small hint. I’ll see if you get it with [Mana Sight] before I divulge the hint.” He held out one hand to the side, “Watch this with your [Mana Sight].”

Erick turned on [Mana Sight], and saw the dense spells upon Quilatalap, like a layer of gravity upon his skin, and upon the world. And then Quilatalap cast.

In the palm of his hand, Quilatalap popped a [Ward]. He hadn’t called it as such, and the spell was invisible to normal sight, but to Erick’s [Mana Sight], and compared to his knowledge of what magic looked like what, Quilatalap had conjured a dense sphere of power that was unmistakably a [Ward]. The archlich moved his hand to the side of the dense space. He conjured a void.

Erick stared for a few moments. “Huh. It’s an inverted [Ward], correct?”

“Correct.” Quilatalap waited with a small smile on his face. His lower fangs showed, a little. “But that doesn’t tell you anything, does it?”

“… No.” Erick sadly agreed.

Erick turned his attention back to the void, trying to understand.

Calling it a ‘void’ was perhaps not correct. Quilatalap had already provided the words for such an item. It was an inverted [Ward]. Simple! Except… Not quite so simple.

Erick held out his own hand, and channeled mana through [Ward]. A sphere of white light held above his hand, sounding much like an edge. A demarcation, where the world was slightly different inside, than it was on the outside.

Erick held out his other hand, and channeled mana through [Ward], but… differently. It was an attempt at… At something else. White light flickered from his hand, and instantly became one with the surrounding mana. Like he was dropping ink into a world of bleach; the mana flowed away, reshuffling itself back into the manasphere.

No. That was incorrect. It wasn’t… It wasn’t destructive enough.

Oh!

It was Destruction!

That’s why [Ward Destruction] was called [Ward DESTRUCTION]! It was the Destruction Esoteric Element!

Or… Was it?

Erick had never touched a Destruction spell before. He had certainly read of them, though. So he tried what he had read, using the barest bit of Mana Altering, and condensed a breaking of the world into his mind, and into his magic.

A globe of flexed gravity took hold of the air; a denial of existence. A breaking. A Destruction.

“Huh.” Erick said, “Destruction mana?”

“Yes!” Quilatalap enthusiastically said, “You got it! You figured out the secret!” He strongly added, “Don’t try to actually use Destruction in a spell. You will kill yourself.”

Erick eyed his hand that he had just channeled Destruction from. “Uh… Okay.”

Quilatalap noticed, and said, “Channeling Destruction isn’t that bad. It’s like channeling Fire mana; that won’t actually hurt you.”

“… Right.” Erick had channeled Fire mana before, and it hadn’t hurt. He did so right then, producing a prominence of flame without actual heat.

“See! All good. Just don’t make a Destruction spell.” Quilatalap returned to being enthusiastic, as he laughed, and said, “That’s the secret to inverting spells. You combine the starter spell with Destruction, and you end with something attuned to the spell you want, but inverted.”

“Huh.” Erick looked at his hand, and channeled Destruction, producing a mana prominence that was more world-breaking white, than normal white. Archmage Opal had never spoken of Destruction mana, but then again, he hadn’t heard of that particular ‘element’ until well outside of his time at Oceanside. He looked to the two orbs still present in the air beside Quilatalap, and asked, “You do magic a lot differently than they do at the arcanaeums, and elsewhere.” He added, “All the Elements. And No math.”

“Math is useful for describing the world, but magic is more than the math.” Quilatalap said, “Magic is communion with the greater self to enact a change upon the world.” He added, “More cynically, magic is all about creating impressions in the manasphere, filling those impressions with your power, and enabling those impressions to do what you want them to do. Some people come to magic through math. Some don’t. No way is wrong.” He added, “But one thing is always true: In all my understanding of magic, the systems of mathemagic, the elemental systems, harmonic, spiritual, ritual, formation, talisman, tree-based, soul-based, or any other… When a person finds a way that works for them, if they continue along that path, then things usually work out for them.”

Erick listened, and then he acted.

He channeled a few inversions from his hands, listening to their Destruction, and their desire to break what had been whole. And then he cast to the left, flashing a breaking into the world. There was no target, because Erick didn’t need one for this.

And it worked. The ideology behind the first six spells was easy to understand. One blue box appeared. And then, with five more casts, each twenty seconds apart, came five more boxes.

“That’s six elemental breaking spells. 50 mana cost.” He asked, “Is there a [Prismatic Breaker]?”

Quilatalap smiled wide. “Yes.”

Erick channeled his new spells through his palm, all at the same time. This proved to be too much, though, so Ophiel helped. And then, surrounded by a harmonious destruction, Erick cast.

A burst of shadow erupted from his hands, impacting the land beyond.

A blue box appeared.

Quilatalap’s smile got even wider.

“Huh.” Erick said, “That felt rather natural, actually.”

“How so?”

“Like… Like the cohesion of a disparate unwanting. A harmonious junction of denial.”

Quilatalap held his hand out to the right. “Break this, if you could?”

A small spire of multicolored, floating crystal appeared, two meters from the orcol archlich. It was perhaps three meters tall; a bit taller than its caster. Erick felt a strange sort of power roll off of the crystal, like a gentle breeze. As that breeze passed, he felt his nearby Ophiel grow intrinsically stronger, their lightforms shifting into something more powerful, while those in their sunform felt nothing.

“Oh.” Erick asked, “It’s a rift? Or something?” as he flicked ripping shadows at the working.

The crystal spire broke back into the manasphere, like it was never there.

Quilatalap laughed, a great big belly laugh. “Yes! It was a rift!” He said, “It usually takes students years to be able to [Dispel] that! And you just popped out your [Prismatic Destruction], just like that. Or— Which spell did you get?”

“[Prismatic Breaker].”

“A clean variant, then. Sometimes there is too much Destruction. But…” Quilatalap sighed; a contented sound. “Ah. This is nice. I don’t think I’ll be able to teach normal students for a long time. You’ve ruined me, Erick.”

Erick smirked. “I gave you that ring. A good 45 Intelligence should do wonders for new students.”

“That Intelligence is part of your current success, but I’ve seen more than my fair share of smart idiots in my life. Even if your Wizardry is helping you, I’ve sensed none of that so far. You’re just good at this. Giving my future students a lift up with something like 45 Intelligence would help most of them, but some would still never get it. Besides—” Quilatalap waved a dismissive hand, saying, “Intelligence is not sticking around. If the Relevant Entities and Melemizargo ever decide to come together to remake the Script, I do not see them allowing for the easy acquisition of magic.”

“You think so too, huh?”

“Hmm. Well. I said what I said, but perhaps a better way to think of it is… Intelligence was created to enhance the capabilities of the mind, and that is a rather taboo subject when it comes to the gods.” Quilatalap said, “Melemizargo created Mind Magic, and that’s been a horror show for as long as it’s ever existed.”

Erick’s eyes went wide for a long moment. And then he said, “Ah.”

“Intelligence is probably going to be another problem like Mind Magic, but vastly more limited, and possibly changed all together in the future.” Quilatalap said, “So let’s get you powered up while we can.”

Erick almost stopped everything by asking what Quilatalap got out of all this. If Ar’Kendrithyst went away, or rather, if all the Shades here died, then wasn’t he vulnerable to the rest of the world? Wasn’t he here, in this place, because it was the only safe place for him to be?

Or maybe that wasn’t true?

Whatever the case, Erick couldn’t continue to accept help from the man until he knew a little bit more about him. So Erick asked, “Why are you helping me, Quilatalap?”

“I’ve got three gods that like you, and that’s more than a good enough reason to entertain the idea of assisting you in your magical career. Just to entertain the idea, though.” The 3000 year-old archlich nonchalantly added, “But my reason for helping you is that you’re an exemplary archmage, and I like teaching good students. That is my joy in life, and my reason for being. And then there’s the fact that ever since Kirginatharp called you an archmage that you’ve done nothing but good with the power that came your way. And you’ve only been at this magic-thing for a year! That’s insane! So, I will do what I can to help you in some small way, and so, I’ve decided to help you fill some holes in your spellbook. It’s not power, for I don’t often teach people how to gain power. It is utility, and the ability to stay alive, and you, Erick, certainly need some help to stay alive when the meteors start falling.”

Erick tensed. He asked, “What will happen to the people caught in the crossfire?”

“They’ll try to get out of the way. Most will succeed.” Quilatalap said, “Gods willing, if this thing ends with me in any position of power and not running for my life, I will see about reviving those who wish for such a thing, but I doubt many will. The people around here generally don’t like accepting [Resurrection]s.”

For a long moment, Erick thought.

He didn’t want to be the man who put down the monsters. He never had. But he knew the necessity of such actions. He felt that he had broken himself of his tendency to shy away from the ultimatums of life on Veird. But at the same time…

Hollowsaur took joy in killing those who came for his creations, in setting a boundary and laying treasure just beyond that boundary. He wanted to kill people who he could easily label as thieves and intruders. Was it possible to help Hollowsaur turn his desire to kill into something less destructive? He obviously cared about his little green people, and they cared about him.

Or was that thought too naive, and to what degree was it naive? Did Hollowsaur actually care about his people, or was that another layer of his ‘this is mine; you come here, I kill you’ line in the sand?

And what about Farix? He wouldn’t harm a child, and he wouldn’t harm someone if that harm would cause harm to a child. ‘Don’t kill children’ was a low bar, but in being able to pass that bar, Farix had hinted that he still had some sort of morality within him.

And yet… What of justice?

… Yeah. What of justice? Did justice matter? Or was kindness more important, when it came to guiding the powerful back into the light? Or, had these people ruined their chances at redemption long, long ago?

Even Hitler had a dog. But he deserved death.

Shades deserved no less.

And yet… Melemizargo’s insane touch might have had something to do with the decisions the Shades made when they became Shades. Before they were Shades, they were just people, looking for power and destruction, and they got it. They became powerful enough to become the law of the land. They became powerful enough to write their own laws.

But what of everyone else, and their innate right to be free of undue influence and danger?

And what of this world?

Was Erick unfairly ascribing a lenient morality to a world that could literally not support it? The only true ‘law of the land’ was you either followed the idea of ‘Polite Society’, or you didn’t. You either saved your murdering for outside of social interactions, or you didn’t. All other laws stemmed from ‘Might makes Right’.

… Even back on Earth, ‘Might Made Right’. Violence had just been turned into something that was solely the right of the State. Only the police could murder and get away with it, everyone else was forced to play nice.

… In that way, the society the Shades had built in the Brightwater was oddly similar to what Erick had grown up with.

But.

No.

They were not the same. The Shades were tyrants who killed to ‘make the world stronger’. But this world didn’t need more strength. Veird needed more compassion. More understanding. Less power, and more vulnerability.

But at the same time, the Shades still existed. And might still made right. So, like with the Black Star of Koyabez, was it better to end a threat now, or to let it lie in hopes that it could get better tomorrow?

Not too much time had passed since Erick fell to silent thought. Quilatalap graciously waited.

Erick asked, “Quilatalap. How do you deal with people that wrong you?”

He raised an eyebrow. “A philosophical conversation?”

“Not a long one. But, yes.”

“I have found that philosophy can flow rather long, depending on the depth of the problem, and I see you having some Big Thoughts behind those white eyes of yours. But that does not mean I will not oblige this detour.” Quilatalap said, “So. How to deal with someone who wrongs you: In my own affairs, I believe that everyone is their own person, out to get what they can, but limited by the circumstances around them. So I don’t begrudge people who wrong me.” Quilatalap said, “I also don’t give them the opportunity to do it again, but violence is rarely my own solution. Usually, I make myself scarce, and let time take care of my problems. It’s an easy stance to take when you’re immortal and very good at defending yourself. But at the same time, I recognized that it is easy for me to say that, when I have the power to enforce such an option. Not many can say the same.”

Erick said, “Perhaps, a better question would have been: How do you deal with those who wrong others?”

Quilatalap was quick to say, “All tyrants must die.” He added, “But in my own perspective: the tyranny of this world is a tiny, tiny thing. We are not dealing with the corruption of world-spanning cultures, or with powers rising from the depths successfully taking over society after society. We are not dealing with the wholesale murder of nations because some man in some room decided to press a glyph. Compared to the sights I have seen, you have never seen true evil, Erick, no matter what you may believe, and the Shades are far and away much more insane than they are true evil. All this world has is petty warlords, minor kings, and children playing with other children.”

A wind blew across the green fields, twisting the grass like it was seaweed at the bottom of an ocean.

Erick kinda felt like he was at the bottom of an ocean, too. Never seen true Evil? How could Quilatalap say that? Erick had seen evil when he rescued those people from Dorofiend’s lair. He had seen evil when the Halls of the Dead tried to summon a Breach Demon, and before that, when they killed Odaali with the Daydroppers. Thankfully, he had never seen Evil back on Earth, but maybe he would have been a better man today if he had seen true Evil before coming here, and seeing Evil in the white eyes of every Shade.

“Evil is not a matter of scale, Quilatalap.” Erick said, “Evil is a matter of quality.”

Quilatalap sighed, then minutely gestured to everything around him. “I am not blind to the horrors I see around me, Erick. But the Shades used to be the best of us. Their ‘Trials of Darkness’ have always been this deadly, but they used to be more… They used to be better about the process, about the journey and the destination. Less horror. More honor.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“But a lot of the people who come here… They misjudge the depths. They misjudge the power. They are young and stupid and they think themselves invincible. They think themselves ready. They try, and they fail, a great deal of the time. And it was their prerogative to try. To reach for power, and succeed or fail on their own merits.”

Erick let that percolate, for if he spoke his thoughts, he would have started to yell, and he did not want to yell. So he changed topics. He asked, “Are any of the current Shades redeemable?”

Quilatalap looked away. Then he looked to Erick. He asked, “What’s the next spell you want to attempt?”

That answered that question firmly enough.

Moments passed.

Erick said, “I will try to make this one, now.” He channeled some spells through his hands, along with Destruction mana, and harmonized the resulting sound. He cast to the left. A flicker of shadow leapt from his fingers and a blue box appeared.

“That’s [Force Breaker]. For the next one… I think…” Erick held up a hand, and channeled mana through [Ward], but wrong, producing a shadowy glow of non-light. It wasn’t Shadow, but it was something shadow-like.

Tentatively, Quilatalap asked, “Are you going to try for [Ward Destruction]?”

“… No. Not today.” Erick considered his next needed spells. “Let me think about what’s next.”

Quilatalap nodded, then said, “Let me know when you want assistance.”

While he was waiting for the global cooldown to come back, Erick decided to ask one of Jane’s questions. “Ever heard of a buff spell that makes one regenerate more mana than usual?”

“It’s not a spell, but there is a way to do this.” Quilatalap said, “Through the use of your mana sense, and flicking Meditation on and off, you might be able to see the way that mana flows into your soul. If this doesn’t work, you can try using weak mana potions to see this flow. Once you understand the flow, by using your aura you will be able to purposefully pull in extra mana into the well of your soul.

“But understand that this is a skill of last resort, and there is no resulting Blue Box for this ability. It is one of those things the Script does not automate for you, for it is dangerous, and will likely harm you when you try to force this mana into your soul. It is like when you use too many strong mana potions, and just like in that case, you cannot do this action too often, for you risk condensing rads into your body.” He added, “Personally, I think this is an unnecessary skill to learn because it promotes the wasteful expenditure of mana. Learn to cast more efficiently, and this skill becomes a waste of time.”

Erick nodded along, considering all of that.

He decided on his next spell. He cast to the left, chaining together the Destructive versions of [Mana Sight], [Soul Sight], and [Blood Sight], onto the Audio and Visual options of [Ward]. He didn’t have [Witness], yet —he’d need to be able to look a day in the past to be able to get that spell— but maybe he didn’t need to go that deeply into this particular working.

A large sphere appeared, looking like rainbow static. A blue box appeared right after.

Erick smiled. Then he stuck his head inside the space.