119, 2/2

Erick needed to stop by the map to check on what he had seen there.

High above the bowl of Brightwater District, where an orb cascaded even higher above and the white map of Ar’Kendrithyst hovered in the middle of the sky, there were Shades, standing around, eyeing the map. When Erick stepped up to the space, with Hollowsaur trailing behind him, the Shades turned to Erick.

One of them was Lapis, the dark-skinned human Shade of Enchantment, who wore adventuring leathers with lots of pockets. Another was Farix, the blue-skinned incani Shade of Truedark Arcanaeum, who still wore robes. Goldie, the goldscale Shade of Assassination, hovered to the side, wearing a tight set of black cloth armor. None of them looked well rested, or happy about anything at all.

They were already looking Erick’s way as he stepped into the space. Erick regarded them and they regarded him with trepidation. But when Hollowsaur stepped in a bit behind Erick, the Shades all looked his way, their micro and macro expressions shifting to something calmer. Goldie looked hopeful, yet restrained, while the other two looked skeptical.

Hollowsaur spoke up, “Hey, fuckers. Come to join the winning team?”

“I saw you bawl like a baby.” Goldie instantly turned professional, and said, “So no. I won’t be accepting that curse.” With a clinical eye, she said, “Look at you. You can barely stand before the three of us. You’ve been neutered, and that won’t work for me right now. I will, however, take Erick up on his offer after this shit is over and Tania and her ilk are dead.”

Erick had many things to say about all of that, chiefly among those things was that he had not offered anyone anything. He didn’t get a chance to speak, though, before another did.

Lapis said, “I can enact Binding Oaths for us to all work together to—”

“No.” Goldie said, “You’re no better. Erick has morals and you do not. Look, Erick.” She pointed at herself with a manicured talon, saying, “I’m trustworthy, but you don’t know that and Tania and her ilk will start lying to you, now that you’ve made your move to control us. So do you want me in the shadows, or out in the open? Whatever makes you comfortable, but I will not accept a curse at this moment.”

Erick paused in thought. He understood what was happening here, and he did not like it. “… This is one of those ‘no right answer’ situations, I see.”

Goldie shook her head. “There is a right answer. It is one of the two I gave you. Or, I guess I could just hang around and wait for Tania to come for you.” She pointed at the map, at a cluster of blue dots to the east of the Spire. “That’s Tania.” She moved her hand a bit to the right, at almost the same spot, indicating a different cluster of dots, smaller than the first. “That’s Fallopolis.” She dropped her hand. “The ones around those two dots are the stupid ones, fighting out the main fight on those two sides.

“Tania wants to kill everyone except for a few incani, and maybe not even that. Fallopolis wants to kill everyone, except for her own chosen few, and maybe not even that.

“All of the idiots on both sides think that if they win that their leaders will not just turn around and kill them. But that’s what’s gonna happen. The people in those fights are not the ones destined to survive.” She pointed at lone blue dot after lone blue dot, saying, “After Fallopolis or Tania rout the other side and then travel all around Kendrithyst to kill all the stragglers, of course.” She looked to Erick. “I want to survive. And I saved you from Welodio that one time. It should buy me some goodwill, and I mean to take my due at this time. So do you want me out in the open, or hidden?”

Erick looked to the three of them, and then to Hollowsaur. He even gave a glance toward Caizoa, standing off in the distance. Turning back to the Shades, he asked, “Which one of you is going to inevitably betray me?” To their credit, not a single one flinched at Erick’s words. He added, “I guess you hear that all the time.”

Farix said, “Not quite those same words.”

“Normal enough expression, though,” Lapis said, “Which is why I suggest some Binding Oath Bracelets. These are also a normal enough method of ensuring that Oaths are upheld for a while.”

“Which means that you know all the ways to break them,” Erick said. “So why not just take the blessing now?”

Farix, Goldie, Lapis, and even Hollowsaur, each frowned a little. The first three disregarded Erick and turned to each other.

Goldie looked to Lapis, and said, “This really isn’t about him, right now. It’s about us three, here, and maybe more, with him as a guide and a goal.”

Farix said, “We will need his Curse put upon us when this is over or we will just be hunted down like animals by the rest of the world, or whatever batch of Shades come next. So it is about him, somewhat.” He glanced to Erick saying, “But right now Hollowsaur couldn’t hurt a cow—”

Hollowsaur sobbed once, hard, and then schooled that emotion away as fast as he could.

That was completely unexpected.

Erick’s eyes went wide as he turned to the large orcol. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Hollowsaur lied. He added, “But I need to go fix the minotaurs. And they’re right. I’m going to be useless in a fight.” He leveled a pointed finger at Erick, and like a kitten trying to be forceful, he said, “Don’t you dare die on me.” He froze. He realized how he had seemed, and what he had just said. “… Shit.” He stepped away, flashing dark.

“A neutered stallion.” Goldie said, “But that’s the goal, when this is over. A curse round the neck is better than oblivion.” She turned to Lapis. “Fine. Let’s do this Binding Bracelet thing.” She asked Erick, “Is that good enough for you? For now?”

It absolutely was not. None of this was good, or okay, or enough. He had wanted some allies, and this was the way, but these people just showed up, all on their own! Hollowsaur was one thing, but that man was dying and Erick had a way to solve that problem…

And then Erick came back to the people in front of him. None of them were willing to take on his blessing. None of them were willing to prove that they were as contrite as Hollowsaur had been forced to be.

And sure, Erick saw that Hollowsaur was rather… different from how he used to be. But it would be a damn long time before Erick considered Hollowsaur a changed person, just because of some words written in a blue box and cursed— Blessed! And blessed into his soul!

But then Erick looked at Lapis, and Farix, and Goldie. They seemed sincere. Erick had already had come-to-Jesus moments with the first two (Maybe. Could have been fake. This was all happening way too fast.) which is likely why they chose to approach him instead of taking their chances on their own. Goldie was a wildcard, though. And yet…

Erick wanted to offer them an honest hand out of the darkness that had been their life.

What had he told Yggdrasil? ‘It was better to be kind and get hurt, than to cause hurt upon another, for violence was hard to stop once it began.’ That statement was still true, even in the face of horror. And that’s who Erick was, at his core. He forgave, perhaps stupidly. But then again, he had seen people turn their lives around just because they were offered a hand up, rather than a jail sentence, or bills they could never pay, or be forced to live with their abusers. Sometimes, all it took was a little kindness to guide the hurt and the hopeless onto the right path.

For what was the alternative?

If Erick didn’t open up another part of his heart, then these people were going to hurt others.

And besides… Erick might not survive this Shadow’s Feast if he didn’t have a few more allies.

A cynical part of himself spoke of how normal people would never get the opportunity Erick had right now. That the Shades were right about at least one thing: Might Makes Right. If Erick wasn’t this powerful, then none of these opportunities would have come his way.

If Erick had been the same person he was when he first fell to Veird, none of these Shades would respect him enough to even entertain the idea of accepting his blessing. They would just kill him, out of hand, and because it would bring them a little bit of joy.

Erick looked to Lapis, and asked, “How do those Binding things work? Do they force specific actions?”

“No. They’re not that binding.” Lapis explained, “They’re an honor-based system stitched with a bit of Time Magic that will alert the rest of the group if one of the members breaks the binding. The point is to not break them, and yes, you can get around these Binding Oath bracelets if you word them incorrectly. But in this case we can word them simple-like so that breaking them can happen with the least bit of misconduct or the immediate intention to commit malfeasance.” She pulled three dark bands from a small pocket on the side of her leathers, speaking to Goldie and Farix, as she said, “What sort of Oath do you want? I am comfortable with ‘Do no harm to our future chances at gaining Erick’s Curse.’”

Farix said, “Could be stronger.”

Goldie suggested, “I would prefer, ‘Do what it takes to gain Erick’s Curse when this current Feast is over, with the intention of following through with the Quest we all saw Hollowsaur get’.”

Erick spoke up, “It’s not a curse. That wording would be an automatic failure of binding. And if you three already know this and are fucking with me, then this temporary relationship is already off to a bad start.”

The three Shades looked at him.

Farix said, “I thought you were joking—”

“It’s really a blessing?” Lapis asked.

“So you’re good with this?” Goldie asked, cutting to the point.

Lapis followed her lead, saying, “We could go with a ‘Blessing’ wording, instead.”

Erick said, “I am not good with this. But I’d rather force more Shades to repent for a hundred years and a thousand deeds than have Tania reestablish power and fuel the Quiet War to a dark end.” The silver star on his chest, that was now just a part of his sunform, turned pleasantly cold. Erick added, “That said, I will not prevent Tania or Fallopolis from coming for you, and I will not stand with you when the time comes.”

Farix said, “Of course not. You’re still Untouchable. I’m going to stand behind you when Tania shows up, and hopefully that will be enough to survive that encounter.”

Lapis frowned. “We can do more than survive if we work together.”

“Impossible.” Goldie said, “She’s still the Champion of Melemizargo, and our divine backing has evaporated. Standing behind Erick is the only way. He is still Untouchable; that much has not changed.”

“What does that even mean?” Erick asked, “Mechanically?”

Lapis said, “Melemizargo placed a limiter on our cores when he called you Untouchable. This limiter will cause a Fracture if we harm you before you harm one of us. It’s a death sentence in almost any normal situation, and especially so since you’ve demonstrated an ability to survive the first strike. But if you harm one of us, that limiter is removed on a one-by-one basis.” She added, “You already attacked Bulgan, though, so his limiter is off.”

“… Shit.” Erick felt a thought creep up. “That was part of the reason for Bulgan going to Candlepoint, wasn’t it?”

Goldie said, “No. Bulgan never had a limiter.”

Lapis said, “What? Really?”

Erick sighed.

Farix said, “Tania still has a limiter, just like the rest of us. If Tania attacked you, Erick, then even her core would crack. We could kill her, then. That is my plan; to get her to attack you. Know it now, so that you’re not surprised later.”

“Mine, too.” Lapis said.

“Mine, as well. I am glad to see we are of the same design.” Goldie emphatically declared, “We have spent too much time talking. Look.” She pointed back to Erick’s map.

Five blue dots were fighting ten blue dots, just south of the Armory, moving back and forth, stepping here and there, their battle taking place over a ten kilometer section of Ar’Kendrithyst. Elsewhere on the map, a good dozen dots moved around the rest of the city, while a good hundred or more sat stationary.

Erick noted to himself that the Armory had a good twenty static blue dots; a good twenty Shade-cores, perhaps? Were they actually Shade-cores? Erick still wasn’t exactly sure. They seemed to be stuck inside architectural parts of the city, as well as inside every Shade. Maybe they were something else, entirely.

He listened to the distant sky. The sounds of battle were too distant to hear, for Fallopolis and Tania’s battle was at least 50 kilometers away and past a lot of intervening crystals.

Goldie said, “Right now, Bulgan is helping Tania fight Fallopolis’s forces, but when Tania has finally killed that crazy Culler, she and Bulgan will come here.” She stared at Erick with white eyes, saying, “Which is why you need us.”

Erick asked, “And what if Fallopolis wins?”

“Then we are doomed to die.” Goldie said, “But if you think to use her to kill us and keep your hands clean, my last act in this life will be to take your head.”

Erick leaned back in the air, saying, “Ahhh. There we go. There’s the threat.”

“Since we are still talking —while we are in the middle of a serious conflict, mind you— instead of solving some problems, then threats have become necessary to provoke movement.” Goldie glanced toward the map. One of the blue dots on the smaller side was gone, now. She glanced to the air, then said, “Stardust is dead. Tania has gained the upper hand. Fallopolis is down to four people on her side. We’re doing this.” She turned to the other two Shades, saying, “We can talk about strategy after we have laid the bedrock for a strategy to happen.”

Farix looked from Lapis to Goldie, saying, “I am comfortable with Goldie’s suggestion for the Oath. ‘Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast’. How does that sound?”

Lapis held up three bracelets, saying, “Perfect.”

Goldie nodded. “Do it.”

Lapis spoke words of power into the bracelets, “Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast.”

Like the plug pulled in a bathtub, mana flowed from all around, into the bracelets in Lapis’s hands, turning the dark bands into something prismatic, and then back to black. She slipped one around her left wrist, and then tossed the other two to Goldie and Farix. They wasted no time in putting them on. The bands flickered prismatic, before turning dark again around their wrists.

Erick asked, “Now what?”

Lapis said, “No idea.”

“Prepare and fight hard,” Farix said.

Goldie rattled off events as she saw them, “The most likely turn of events is that Fallopolis loses, she falls back, she incorporates Erick into her strategy, Bulgan gets involved. We kill Bulgan before he kills Erick. Tania enrages and wipes the floor with all of us. We all die, including Erick. Tania goes into hiding, to orchestrate the downfall of humanity from the shadows.” She looked to the air, as her aura turned diffuse, like a mist spreading from her soul. She began making shit up; guessing, “The World Tree under Sininindi is used to enact Scripts on the other worlds of this orbital system. A century or two passes. Tania makes her way to one of these new worlds, after they stop looking for her. Maybe Melemizargo has a new Clergy by then. Maybe they’re already searching for her… to kill or to drag into their hierarchy… And… That’s all I got. Can’t see too far into the future, but that’s the closest to the truth, right now.”

Erick would have paled if he had been in his human body. He recognized a pattern in Goldie’s casual use of magic. Goldie wasn’t just rattling off events as she saw them. She was actually seeing future events. Erick glanced to Farix and Lapis, and saw two very concerned people, their worry showing in the lines of their faces. He looked to Goldie, and saw nothing but certainty.

Erick asked, “How often do you use the future to determine the present?”

“All the time.” Goldie said, “I’m usually perfectly reliable to a good five minutes out. Past that, it gets nebulous. Sharing what I know about the future usually ruins it, sending the paths into spirals and fractures. But I am telling you now because the futures where I don’t tell you are less-hopeful than the ones where I do.” She added, “This is the only time I will be discussing my power.”

“No.” Erick said, “No.” He demanded, “Tell me why you can’t kill Tania, yourself. Your power seems too powerful.”

“Because, Erick.” Goldie said, “Time watching is a trick, and tricks do not matter in the face of overwhelming power.”

“I always wondered how you did what you did.” Farix asked, “But what now?”

Goldie said, “I’m good with defending here.”

Lapis said, “Here is fine. We’ll be able to see them coming from every angle without dividing ourselves off into sentry-eyes.”

Goldie lifted her head up, as she turned toward Caizoa, who remained in the sky, in the far distance. “She’s going to be a problem, but there’s not much we can do about that.” Goldie turned to Erick, saying, “If you make yourself truly vulnerable in front of her, she’ll probably kill you. Hard to tell, though. Too much divine interference.”

“I wasn’t going to do that, anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” Goldie said, unconvinced.

Erick frowned, then looked to the other two. “You two got any special powers?”

Lapis said, “Tania and her kind raided my Forge, so all I have is what I have on me, and these trinkets will make themselves known at the appropriate time.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Farix snorted. “About what you’d expect from the Shade of Enchantment.”

“Since we’re at the end, why not tell us all what your abilities are, then, Professor?” Lapis needled. “Never seen you do much of anything!”

“Ethereal Elemental-Blood explosions.” Farix said, “Back when I had the Script, I could do times-five multipliers, all day long. It’s a lot better these days.”

Lapis’s eyes briefly went wide. She looked between Erick and Farix, asking, “Did you—”

Goldie sighed, loudly.

Lapis smirked as she couldn’t help but to postulate, “Blood explosions, eh? Did you put that criminal up to extorting Erick?”

Erick looked to Farix. The incani’s face betrayed nothing. No visible, or invisible part of him did, either. But Erick still stared, wondering how he would answer.

Farix said, “The only hand I had in all of that was teaching others how to properly explode various things, and bodies make very good material.”

Erick sighed, hated everything for a brief moment, then decided to accept this lot in life, for now, as he banished an uncomfortable thought and turned his attention to the map. Hollowsaur’s dot, presumably, had been moving around the Jungle for a little while now, but it had stopped for the last five minutes at a place near the water’s edge. Erick sent an Ophiel stepping through the light, in that direction.

Erick changed topics, “So you all saw that Quest he got when he showed it to me, right?”

Nods all around.

“So how are you spying on me, exactly?”

Lapis said, “Long range sentry-eyes.”

“Shadow Sight,” Goldie said.

“Shadow Sight,” Farix said.

Farix and Goldie looked to each other for a brief moment.

“Whatever. Okay. Fine. So. Did Hollowsaur fake that Quest?” Erick said, “He ran off rather fast, and he certainly did not look healthy when he went. I heard that faking a Script screen even does bad things for Shades.”

Farix suddenly narrowed his eyes at Hollowsaur’s dot. He said, “I certainly hope it was real. Fucker better not have faked it.”