128, 1/2

Lines of shadeling orcols stretched down the muddy street, while rain fell all around. They waited for their turns at the paperwork stations, or for the Mind Mage on duty. Poi’s line was the quickest by far, but very few of the 327 remaining shadelings of the commune wanted to go to him. His line was only thirty two deep.

Poi’s line was still gaining members, though, for the main lines had complications.

A little ways away, those main lines sat underneath [Domain of Light]. There were six desks, each manned by four different people. Only one of those people actually engaged with the shadeling standing in front of them. The other three were a mix between backup for any violent situation that might occur, and clerking staff. They occasionally blipped away to come back with more paperwork, before rapidly taking their position back at the side of the person actually conducting the exit interview.

Erick looked upon one of those interviews from far away, checking up on them as was his power, while he kept eyes and ears out in all directions, and watched as more and more shadelings came out of the depths of the commune, to either try their luck at running the blockades all around the broken housing development, or to try their luck at the desks. No one made it through the blockades of light and stone and ice all around the commune, though. Either Erick bumped them back into the commune area himself, taking personal control of his Domain to lock down the shadeling trying to sneak through, or the minor mountains of ice-stone golems did the same, but with much more violence.

Erick watched, as a man approached a desk.

The shadeling stepped into the Light, becoming something more solid and shivering, like every other shadeling before him. Another step took him under the [Weather Ward] cast over the desk and the people in front of him. He wore rags and dripped rainwater, but he wiped his arms and hands off as best he could; they wanted him to sign paperwork, after all.

The woman behind the desk indicated the gently-glowing green truthstone sitting just to the side. It glowed green, as she said, “All of this interaction will be conducted under truthstone. If you disagree, then you won’t be leaving Treehome today and perhaps not even tomorrow. Your ability to leave tomorrow might be greatly diminished if you choose not to continue, for who knows what will happen if you don’t get out of here while you can. Do you wish to continue?” It was a phrase she had said many times already. The stone remained green all throughout.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Very well.” She said, “State your name, date of birth, tribe and Treehome tribe, if applicable, and affiliation, if you have one, and if anyone will vouch for you.”

“Deckari Sideril-Nosier. 1, 5, 1407. Tribe Sideril of Nosier, Adventurer’s Guild. Uh. My team was Rapple Leaf Four. The team goes back about four years. They’re still out there, last I heard. They won’t vouch for me, though.”

The woman listened to Deckari and watched the truthstone out of the corner of her eyes. It had never varied from green. She took a paper from a stack to the side and slid it across the desk to him, then indicated the cup of pens, saying, “Write all that down.”

Deckari did so.

When he was nearing completion, the woman asked, “Why won’t your team vouch for you?”

Deckari finished his end of the paperwork, then prepared himself. He said, “Shadeling Cultist.”

Erick had been about to move on, but instead he watched the interaction a bit closer. The people beside the woman at the desk stood a bit straighter, their eyes focusing a bit more.

The woman kept a calm voice, as she grabbed another form from a different pile. With a small spell, her own pen began to float in the air, hovering over the new sheet of paper, ready to fill out the worksheet on her own. She asked, “And how did that happen?”

The pen moved, waiting for the answer.

Deckari paused. He said, “We did the Candlepoint thing, getting dark chips and all that. We got one New Stat fruit apiece, and then I was the first to get their second New Stat. First was Intelligence. Then came Constitution. That was when I turned shadeling. That led to some… hard conversations. They took me here.” He choked up, briefly, then fought on, saying, “I was in here. I looked to the gods for help, but when I called their names, they didn’t respond and I bled when I continued to call out. But Melemizargo answered me.” He spoke stronger, saying, “And he helped me through this really tough time. More than Aloethag ever—” He winced. Blood dripped from his nose. “It’s more than the Red Woman ever did for me.”

The truthstone stayed green.

The pen had written down most of what Deckari had said, but not exactly as he had said it. Looking over her shoulder, Erick saw that nothing was too off about her account of his account. But the woman had written down in a separate part of the form regarding the weaknesses that Deckari had displayed. ‘Can’t speak about other gods without bleeding’ and ‘Melemizargo targets shadelings for conversion’ were among the notes in that second box.

The woman said, “Since you’re a Cultist, you have extra requirements for leaving Treehome.” Her pen waited as she got out more paperwork. She set that down and moved the pen over it, as she started, “First: Your contacts in the Cult.”

“A lot of them are dead.” Deckari said, “A lot of us are like that.”

The truthstone stayed green. The woman wrote down Deckari’s answer. It was not the first time that someone had given Deckari’s answer, and it wouldn’t be the last.

And his answer was not good enough.

“I still need names.”

“Omaz, though I didn’t know him as Omaz. I knew him as Light. That’s what he went by when he spoke to others in the city, who I also tried to stay away from. I don’t know those people’s names either. There were also a few of the guards on the other side of the wall.” Deckari said, “I tried to stay away from them, too.” He maintained his calm facade, but Erick, and everyone else, could tell he was angry at those nameless, faceless guards.

“Which shadelings in the commune? Which guards?”

“I don’t know their names. Initiate Cultists don’t get to see the faces of their compatriots.”

The truthstone stayed green.

“Typical,” said the woman. “Every fuckin’ time. Look. Give me something, or you ain’t getting out of here today.”

The implication that he would never get out, at all, ever, was left unsaid.

Deckari said, “I did know the guards were from Block 6 and 7. I never knew their names, either, but I knew their faces.”

“Only halfway useless, with a better chance of making us second guess our own people than actually helping. Just like a fucking Cultist.” She asked, “Tell me straight: Did you participate in the day’s battles?”

“I shot some spells at the guards who tried to kill me last week; yes.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “What spells? Did you kill anyone?”

“[Chain Lightning]. Yes. I killed the guards— the Cultists from Block 6 and 7. The ones I was talking about. You won’t have to worry about watching your back, because I killed them for trying to kill me.”

The woman’s pen stilled. Erick stilled, too. The truthstone flickered pink.

The man rapidly added, “I mean. I don’t know if you have to worry about watching your back. I only knew about the ones who tried to get me.” Somewhat repeating himself, he said, “I killed the Cultist guards who were planning on harming me. The ones from block 6 and 7.”

The truthstone stayed green.

The pen resumed writing, as the woman asked, “Is the Cult big on murdering itself?”

“When other parts of the Cult get out of line with Melemizargo’s goals, yes.”

The woman almost sighed. She didn’t want to ask this next question, but she did, anyway. “Did Melemizargo put you up to killing those other Cultists?”

“No.” Deckari said, “I just saw the chance to kill the people who had promised to kill my old team if they ever came to visit, and I took it.”

“… So you still harbor some love for your old adventuring team?” She glanced at the paperwork. “Rapple Leaf Four?”

“Of course I do.” Deckari was hurt at the woman’s insinuation, whatever she could have been insinuating with those words, but he let it go. “I told them to stay away. They only stayed away after I converted, though.” He said, “I am truly a Cultist. You can’t fake that. Melemizargo doesn’t like that.”

“… Okay.” The woman said, “If you were not a Cultist, I could offer you a third choice of getting your paperwork vetted that would be that. But since you’re a Cultist, and you have admitted to killing some guards… Who were also Cultists, according to you, you have two choices.” She pointed with both her finger and the floating pen at Poi, across the street, saying, “Archmage Flatt’s Mind Mage is the fast way. He’s over there. I suggest you forget about all of this paperwork and just go to him.” Then she and her pen pointed to the right. “They’re the start of the slower way.”

She had indicated a circle of stone and glass and crystal, sitting out of the [Domain of Light], under the rain, where four people stood to the four corners of the magic circle and held their hands high, as a shadeling stood in the center. Magic flashed. The four casters and the shadeling began to glow. The casters glowed white, with a bit of grey and a bit of red. The shadeling glowed grey with a lot of black, and a little bit of red.

According to what Erick had seen before, that meant that everyone in that circle was guilty of killing someone, but it wasn’t outright murder.

Deckari frowned. He glanced at Poi, then turned toward the circle of casters.

The shadeling in the center of the circle was directed to the right, to another desk. They had passed their test. They got to continue onto the next set of paperwork.

Another shadeling walked into the magic circle. The casters raised their arms. The shadeling glowed bright red this time, almost instantly. That brightness barely had a chance to get out, and the shadeling barely had a chance to plead for mercy, before the air flexed and the shadeling imploded into a head-sized ball of gore.

Someone cast a [Cleanse] on the gore, vanishing it into thick air.

Deckari turned back to the woman behind the desk, pleading, “I know I killed those guards and I’m sorry but they deserved it. They were Cultists, too. Can I please have leniency for these facts?”

The truthstone stayed green.

Without remorse, the woman said, “If you leave the line now and fail to go to the indicated options, you will be hunted and killed where you stand.” She said, “We want this commune emptied today. You have two avenues open to you. Pick one.” She briefly gestured toward Poi again, saying, “The monsters the Mind Mage finds aren’t getting instantly killed, but all us normal people can do is summary judge your sins with a Seeker. So I suggest you go to the Mind Mage, and try your luck there, monster.”

The truthstone stayed green.

Deckari had hoped for a different outcome than what the woman had given him. He had hoped that his circumstances would have given him that third option, that the woman had taken away. He only had two choices before him. One was certain death. The other was less certain.

To be sure, he said, “If I hadn’t have told you about the Cultist thing and the killing thing you would have judged me as a person, and not as what you see before you.”

The woman said, “Correct. And then we would have found out later and executed you upon the reveal of your lie.”

Deckari reluctantly got in line for Poi.

It would be a while before he got to the front of that line, so Erick mentally marked Deckari and moved his sight elsewhere.

– – – –

A woman tried to kill a desk clerk. She was executed where she stood, with spells and attacks coming from seven different directions, all at once. Erick’s contribution to the fight was the deflection of the woman’s heart-piercing magic, saving the desk clerk’s life.

A hundred shadelings passed their investigations. Erick helped them on their way to Candlepoint.

A trio of men tried to murder the Sin Seekers at the magic circle. Erick intervened, faster than anyone else, saving the lives of the Sin Seekers. The trio failed in their attempt. They died.

– – – –

Erick watched as Deckari watched as Ophiel took a woman away in a flash of light.

Deckari stepped up to Poi, looking grim, and resigned.

Poi asked his questions.

Deckari reluctantly gave his consent.

The scan happened, and then finished.

Poi said, “Deckari Sideril-Nosier. Cultist. Mostly solo. Tried to get others involved in the Cult. He has murdered in a calculating and purposeful manner, but the guards he murdered were purposefully inciting the war of the day. According to other people I have scanned, and Deckari himself, those guards were also Cultists, so if we were to overlook the fact that Deckari is a Cultist himself, and that the targets were technically part of Treehome’s forces, he would have been given honors in any other situation.” He narrowed his eyes at Deckari, and said, “The vigilantism is frowned upon but your circumstances were valid. When you get to Candlepoint, join the guard or the adventuring guild there. It is not a true Guild, but they’re trying to get that approval. For now, and if you wish, you could be helping to feed yourself and others the rads you need to survive.”

To Poi’s side, a clerk and their floating pen wrote down everything then filed that paperwork away in the appropriate wooden box.

Deckari stood stunned. He breathed out, and he failed to breathe back in; his jaw open in astonishment. And then he gasped. He sniffled. He breathed fast a few times, then shut his mouth as tears threatened. Others in the line watched on, as Deckari walked over to Ophiel, muttering, “Thank you.”

Ophiel whisked him away to Candlepoint.

Erick felt a fraction of relief.

The next person stepped up to Poi, and Poi gave his speech, asking for consent.

The woman said, “I consent.”

Poi began his scan.

– – – –

Erick watched as Deckari stepped onto the black ground of Candlepoint.

The Guardmaster of Candlepoint, Slip, said, “I got an eye on you.” He pointed upward, toward an Ophiel floating overhead. “But Erick’s got a hundred.”

Deckari said, “Heard and understood!”

Slip nodded. Then he asked, “Now what do you want to do with your life?”

“Adventuring seems great to me.”

“Then you’re gonna want to talk to Zaraanka Checharin of the Pink House or the guildhouse. Human woman, likes to wear pink.” Slip pointed. “It’s that way.” He thumbed behind him, toward a squat, black building. “And that’s the Dark Temple. If you want to try your hand at turning back to what you were before, you go in there, and you might come out alive but you won’t come out whole. We got healers on standby for that. Try it or not, I don’t care.”

Deckari locked eyes with the Dark temple, then tentatively asked, “What about open worship?”

“Nonexistent.” Slip said, “I’m watching you. I’ve got you in my book.”

Deckari flinched, then said, “Heard and understood!”

Deckari strode off toward the Pink House, trying not to smile too wide.

The bright blue sky showed through gaps in the clouds, as a cool wind blew from the north, and shadelings lived out in the open, all around, without fear. Well. Maybe a little bit of fear. Deckari glanced up at a squadron of robe-type summoned creatures, hovering above the white Crystal in the center of town, while more robe-summons crawled out of the artifact’s white surface, to gather into more formations, to go wherever they were meant to go.

Deckari glanced around, and saw no other summons, though. Perhaps he was looking for the armored ones that he had seen, back when Candlepoint was ruled by a Shade.

Ophiel hovered high in the sky, in his diffuse lightform self, barely a glow on the sky as he watched the new addition to Candlepoint find his way, while spying on many other current events. Erick turned most of his attention back to his own body, though he was never too far away from any of his Ophiel.

– – – –

Erick wasn’t that far away from Yggdrasil, either.

But sometimes it felt like that to Yggdrasil. Possibly. Maybe. He wasn’t quite sure what anything felt like, except for the water, and the waves above, and the darkness and the light. He checked up on Erick almost all the time, keeping a [Scry] eye close and active to his creator, but that was not the same as being there. Which was fine. He didn’t think he liked moving all that much. When he tried flexing a branch, it was the most awful feeling in the world. It was like flexing a branch! And wasn’t that awful.

But when he grew that branch. Oh! That was practically wondrous. It was a sense of progress, a sense of distance passed, and a sense of being that much closer to the world around him.

There was a lot of world to get close to, after all, and he was so very small, with such very small thoughts. Thinking was a bit difficult, but he could still do it if he thought hard enough.

What was ‘thinking’, anyway?

He was certainly getting something resembling thoughts through his connection with Erick, but they were shadows of a truth that was just out of his reach. Erick spoke of waking from dreams, one time…

Or maybe Erick had thought that idea around a space currently occupied by Yggdrasil? And Yggdrasil had just picked it up?

Yggdrasil wasn’t quite sure.

He wasn’t quite sure about anything.

And what was going on with all the destruction happening around Erick right now, anyway? And those words he had spoken. End, and Peace. There had been Power in those words, and though the first one was interesting, the second one felt better. Like a firmament laying down, giving layered rise to new growths, where the tangled roots of possibility stretched out into time’s eyes and soaked through the matter of the world, drawing forth new perspectives in the tumbled light and shadows…

Yggdrasil imagined leaves and branching patterns of fractal might and other nebulous things, like people riding goats through the dark water and turning lights to flowers in the air, as shadows were people and people became shadows and the abyss was just the start of another, deeper world…

Ah.

It was time for dreams, apparently.

Yggdrasil didn’t quite sleep, but he wasn’t quite awake, either.

Even when he was awake, an argument could be made that he was actually, truly asleep.

– – – –

They had seen the battle in the sky, of course, for they had been out on the town at the time, but they had not participated except to make themselves scarce, and to then run back to the hotel after it was all over. It was only then that they got an update from Poi, and from others.

Jane frowned as Kiri repeated the news, after Teressa denied it wholeheartedly.

Kiri tore through her bag of clothes, muttering, “Where is my good dress—” She stopped, and rounded at Teressa, saying, “It’s true! And we need to prepare! Part of that is not looking like we just came off the street!”

Jane joked, “But we did just come off the street.”

“You!!!” Kiri ignored Jane as she ripped into her second bag.

“It can’t be true.” Teressa said, “Erick wouldn’t— He wouldn’t do that? He wouldn’t help the Cult? Against Treehome?”

Jane said, “If he had a good enough reason, I’m sure he would have.” She added, “And if we’re going to war, what’s the point of clothes?”

“Only you would say that! We’re not at war yet, so don’t go putting us at war when we could step back from the edg—” Kiri stopped tearing into her second bag of clothes, saying, “Right! I have [Clothe]!”

She shimmered like a magical princess, and Jane was a little bit jealous when she came out of that shimmer wearing earrings made of silver and diamonds and green gems darker than her scales, along with a classy, white dress.

“Ah ha!” Kiri said, “I knew I brought it!” She kicked her bag to the side of the room, venting her anger just a bit.

Jane said, “Why did you ever bring that?”

Kiri rounded on Jane, saying, “Because I knew that sometimes our battles would not be ones of swords or spells, Jane.” Kiri dropped her anger like it was poison, for it was, and adopted a perfect facade of poise and grace, as she said, “This is going to be a battle of politics and nobility well before it turns into a war of swords and spells, and if you can’t do that, then you should stick to the shadows and stick to what you’re good at, but I, for one, am going to stand by Erick with all of my might.” A Sunny coiled around her neck, becoming both a necklace and a scarf, as Kiri turned to Teressa, saying, “And you! What’s your damage? Erick told us that he is helping the shadelings. Not that he is helping the Cult!”

“But all the shadelings in the commune are a part of the cult.” Teressa said, “That’s what everyone is saying.”

“Obviously you have been lied to.” Jane said, “If they were a part of the Cult, then they wouldn’t have been changed to shadelings by taking in multiple New Stats.”

“Okay. Okay.” Teressa said, “Probably. But Erick went and stepped right into all of it… Erick wouldn’t do anything too crazy, would he?”

Kiri’s eyes went fractionally wider, but they could have gone much wider than that.

Teressa said, “Okay. I realize how stupid I just sounded.” She went to her room, saying, “I know I brought something…”

Jane said, “I’m not playing dress up.”

Kiri deflated the perfect amount to show displeasure as she looked Jane up and down, and said, “Please get over yourself and put on something better than leathers and dirt. Before the day is done, we will either be fighting for our lives, or talking to people a thousand rungs higher on the social ladder than us. [Conjure Armor] can make up for the first eventuality, but it will not do for the second. They will look down on us if we wear fake clothes. They always do.”

Teressa called out from her room, “Orcol society isn’t as shitty as your own, Kiri.”

“And yet you’re still changing!”

“… And yet I am still changing.”

Kiri glared at Jane.

Jane frowned, then went to her room.

In two minutes, the three of them were ready. Kiri, with her classy white dress and surrounded by floating couatl-shaped Sunnys. Jane, in a black dress with a slit up the side that made moving easy and could be discarded at a moment’s notice for [Polymorph]ing. Teressa, in a three-piece suit of grey with silver accents.

Jane said, “I like that, Teressa.”

“It’s my uniform for official parties. Cost way too much.”

Kiri asked, “We ready? I’ve scouted a good location and I’m blipping us close, but not too close.”

“What the fuck?” Jane asked. “Just get us right in there next to dad.”

Kiri said, “We’ll have to walk in, Jane. That place is laced with [Teleport Trap]s of the ‘instantly clasped in irons’ variety. I didn’t get to see much of it because they popped Sunny several times, but some trio of noble-looking orcols blipped right into the commune, right where some guards were waiting for them, and then other guards came in and locked them all in chains, including the ones that allowed the others to come into the commune. If we blip in there, then we will be roughly escorted to a tiny cell, and besides that! I got a chance to speak to him, as I’m sure you did, too, and Erick has asked us to be as polite as possible… But if things look to go bad, then… We’ll figure something out. If things do go wrong, Erick will probably be better off without us there… Maybe we shouldn’t go at all.” Kiri asked, “So. Are we going in? Are we doing this? This is dangerous.”

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“I’m going in, and you two are welcome to join me.” Jane said, “If nothing else, I can be another pair of eyes to watch my father’s back.”

Teressa tried a joke to lighten the mood, “Silverite would kill me if Erick died on us and I wasn’t there to protect him.”

“Good. I thought so, but… Yeah. I need to be there, too. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t go and he ended up needing me.” Kiri said, “Short-term spells, then.”

Jane started running a few spells. Teressa did the same. All three women steeled themselves, and then a couatl touched each of them, and then they were gone, out of their hotel room at Arbor O’kabil, and onto a flat spot of land in the middle of nowhere, that was slightly in sight of the commune.

“Ah. Shit.” Jane said, “That looks bad.”

Across a few hills, past a sparse treeline, was a land of broken shadows and solid light, surrounded by icy stone and even more solid light. Rain fell, but it was a light drizzle.

“It’s worse up close.” Kiri said, “They’re shooting down everything that flies over there.”

As if her words summoned the action, several sparkling spells exploded in small amounts over the commune.

“Just like that,” Kiri said. “More [Scry] eyes, maybe.”

Teressa grunted. It was go-time, and she had few words to spare, anyway.

Jane took the lead.

They met a blockade within moments of passing over the first hill. A low wall of hastily-erected stone had been put up by someone, then manned by guards standing atop that low wall. Their wall wasn’t even the largest one in the area; that designation belonged to the jailing wall that formed the second concentric ring around the commune, past the wall that directly surrounded the commune. The middle wall, the jailing wall and all the guard barracks and towers there, had been broken by some large-scale magics. The commune’s wall was barely visible, but what was visible were ruins and rubble. Where those structures had been broken, solid light had filled the gaps.

“Halt!” said a man in solid, wooden armor, next to the outer wall. He held a spear at the ready as the three women appeared. Him and seven of his guard buddies turned toward Jane, Kiri, and Teressa. “No interference! Leave now, or be locked in chains until this is all over! The other prisons are not full, at all! We can always make more rooms.”

Kiri stepped forward, half a step, saying, “We are here as associates of Archmage Erick Flatt, and wish clear entry into the contested zone. Please allow us entry.”

“Fuck that Cultist lover! We have no obligation to him!” The guard stepped toward them, again, shouting louder, “If you wanted entry in there, that was a bad lie to try! That place is rigged to blow if anyone tries to ‘port in, so don’t go trying that, either.” He stabbed his spear forward. Lightning crackled from the tip and struck the ground in front of Kiri, scattering dirt on her dress. He shouted, “Leave!”

The other guards focused on the three women, though some kept their eyes open for people coming from other directions. They were all on high alert.

Kiri simply asked, “Is there a way to procure travel inside, using legal means?”

“No.” The man brandished his spear. It crackled with electricity. “Leave.”