136, 1/2

There were multiple uses for resonances, Erick thought, as he walked across the courtyard of the Castle, hurrying to get back into his guest room and distract himself from watching Tenebrae almost die.

Anyway. Resonances.

There were positive feedback loops, which would be a small physicality that built damage over time. There was the idea of making two spaces harmonically identical, which was Erick’s current guess at one of the major pieces of the [Gate] puzzle. And then there was the idea of denying the harmful sound magics of others, or, what was more likely, was denying the harmful side effects of his own harmonic magics.

Magic itself also had harmonies. Many of Erick’s experiences with creating spells was based upon the idea of discarding disruptive aspects and heightening positive aspects; to refine mana until it was as close to perfectly aligned with other parts of itself and with Erick’s own intent, thus resulting in a better spell.

But working with actual, physical sound was different than working with magical ‘sound’. Magical ‘sound’ certainly had a soul-aspect to it that you could only hear through non-physical means. Particle Sound Magic would have to be solely based on wavelength, amplitude, and medium; on mana affecting the material world. All of these ideas were largely unexplored by Erick, though, and from Tenebrae’s disregard for ‘Sound Magic’, he suspected that they were largely unexplored by everyone else on Veird, too. Except for maybe one people, in one particular place.

The Songstresses of the Songli Highlands in Nelboor probably knew much of what Erick was already thinking about… Or maybe they didn’t? Maybe they hoarded their knowledge, too. Whatever the case, that leg of this Worldly Path was yet to come, and right now, he was pretty sure that there were three categories to resonance.

Positive, neutral, and negative.

To make any of these spells, he would need to be able to target the physical resonances of a target.

Erick ran into his first problem.

Targeting the ‘resonance of an X’ was a non-starter. People, plants, rocks— Okay, maybe not all rocks. Anyway. All of those were systems with millions of smaller parts that all resonated differently. It was only when most of an object was in harmony that—

Ah. There’s the solution, and the hurdle to overcome; putting a target into a single resonance state. That was one of the spells; the starter one, perhaps.

Or maybe not?

That idea knocked loose a few others that Erick had forgotten about, and that’s when his ideas finally began to crystallize.

Back on Earth, an object was said to have a number of ‘normal vibrational modes’ intrinsic to itself, as a matter of its molecular makeup and a whole lot of other factors, and in a bastardization of the term ‘superposition’, objects as wholes could be said to vibrate in a superposition of all of these modes at the same time. Harmonizing those molecular ‘normal modes’ down to one, which could then be excited or diminished or whatever, would be the responsibility of the magic that Erick was going to make, and would thus allow two spaces, or any number of spaces, to actually be harmonically the same.

This was just a better explained version of what Erick was trying to do with [Gate].

It was probably a good thing that Erick wasn’t out there, right now, singing a song to make new magic for Tenebrae to witness; his ideas were there, but the depth of his ideas could use some work. So Erick took out an empty notebook and started writing, trying to see the problem from multiple angles and to understand exactly what he wanted. Magic could fill in a lot of gaps, but Erick needed to get as close to the goal as he could, and the closer he got, the better the end result.

Attuning a collection of objects to one harmony didn’t seem like it would be a problem, but attuning a person to themselves might be a problem, and [Gate] needed to attune the people that went through it, right? And that meant getting through Health to affect the person shielded by that Health—

Or. No.

This was an ‘outside-in’ problem. Magic worked from the outside toward the inside, so attuning a person might not actually be all that difficult. It wouldn’t be a damaging spell, anyway. Actual damage would be blocked by Health, but status effects? Not so much. Erick’s new spells would likely create a brand new status effect, called ‘Harmonized’. Yeah. That would work, wouldn’t it?

Erick probably didn’t need to consider souls or Health when making this new magic. This was physical magic, after all.

Anywho! Work work.

Erick wrote, thought, made dinner for himself and his family when Jane and Teressa got back, and then worked some more. He went to bed for a few hours, which was enough, honestly, and then he got up and continued to write in his notebook. He wrote by wardlight, in the courtyard, while the stars glittered overhead, Rockys and the occasional Senior walked through, and everyone else slept.

He had never used a notebook before, because he never wrote down any ideas, because he never wanted any of his ideas to be stolen and used by the wrong people. But his current series of ideas were likely not a big deal, because there were only four spells here, and one of them would automatically negate the other three; three to turn a targeted system into an actual system, and one more.

Positive, harmonized, negative, and ‘restore natural superpositions’.

[Restore All Normal Modes] would be the first spell to make. Whereas the first three would empower, solidify, or weaken vibrational effects, the last one would be able to negate these adjustments. Since Erick wanted these spells to go into the Open Script, Erick felt good about himself for first making the counterspell to this entire new branch of magic. Well. Mostly new. He had already made one ‘sound magic’ spell already.

His spell, [Stillness].

That spell took all the minor physical effects in a Super Large Area, read: loud noises, and turned them to light. [Stillness] was outside of this current 4 part theory, though. That would be the fifth part; the shifting of sound into some other element.

Maybe he could try reversing that spell, in order to turn light into vibrations. He already had a light Domain, and there was probably something interesting lurking in a combination of all five of these spells…

The sun rose. Erick made breakfast, ate with his people, then went back to work on his ‘Sound Magic’.

Tenebrae did not wake under his own power. Palodia said that he was getting better, but he was not good enough to see any new magics.

Erick went back to his ideas and continued to refine them. When they were good enough, he sat back in a reclining [Scry] chair, flickered on his mana sense to become one with the mana, and then took a small step outside of the current timestream as he sent off a hundred mana to the God of Death and Time. He had some questions of new Particle Magic, and Phagar had the answers.

The world crystallized into stained-glass fractures. Divine fire filled the mana.

A god in the shape of Erick stepped out of that glass and pulled up a chair out of the ether, saying, “Hey, Erick. I’m not actually the God of Death, you know. That’s just what people think.”

Erick happily said, “And I am one of those people, it seems.”

Not-Erick grinned, saying, “What kinda magic are you making today?”

“Maybe not today, but soon enough.”

Erick laid out his ideas, while Phagar listened.

Erick ended with, “Broad strokes: Positive, Neutral, Negative, and Normalize. Four new spells based on a Particle understanding of the world, but I want them to be open to everyone, so I won’t make them at full power. They should be at the same level of power as [Stillness].”

Phagar said, “Sounds like you have a good plan. It’ll work, too. But just so you know, the magic that you are trying to make has already been made.”

Erick’s mind blanked, briefly. “… What!”

Phagar laughed, then said, “Song magic was made long ago at the dawn of the Script and then, with a century of stagnation and with the clarity that it would never be strong enough to be its own field of magic, ‘Song Magic’ was subsumed into Elemental Thunder; pruned into what it is today. Never improved upon beyond that, either, for no one had the skill or the understanding to do so, and everyone confused Sound and the natural actions of Force.” He got up from his chair and the stained-glass of the world turned back into fragmented Reality, as he cheerfully said, “So go ahead. Rewrite the book on Sound Magic. Good luck!”

Phagar’s divine fire vanished as Erick came back to himself.

Erick went back to working on his theories and his applications, though there wasn’t much more to do. He was mostly waiting for Tenebrae to get better. He didn’t know how long that delay would be, so…

Erick decided to take Phagar’s words to heart, and literally write a book on Sound Magic. Just a small one. It might not even be correct, if his spells didn’t come out exactly as he plotted. But he wrote down what he knew in the most concise manner possible, giving broad strokes first, and then refining those ideas down into something more manageable.

For the first time in his time on Veird, he missed having a computer. Writing by hand sucked!

Another day came and went.

Palodia was scheduled to cook again. Tenebrae was finally healthy enough to not need eyes on him 24 hours a day. They still kept eyes on him all the time, though, but he was getting better. Erick looked forward to Palodia’s cooking, but he had magic to make, so he sat in the courtyard, writing in his notebook. Hours passed.

Dinner was an hour away, and so was sunset. Erick wrote in the shadows, and he hoped that the shadows weren’t being too nosy, but they probably were.

The door to Tenebrae’s tower opened.

Erick looked up.

Tenebrae walked out of his tower under his own power. He did not walk fast, but he did not walk like the old man he was, either. Rock and Obsidia walked on either side of the old archmage. Erick stood up, and smiled.

“Hello there!” Erick called out.

“Yes yes. Hello hello. Pleasantries everywhere and all that shit.” Tenebrae’s voice was weak as he walked up to Erick, saying, “Time to prove that the squiggles in your notebook are real and not the delusions of an idiot-savant.”

“I’m glad you think enough of my squiggles to spy on me,” Erick said, with good cheer. “I was worried it was just Melemizargo out here.”

“Bah! Call not his name. Are you a dumbass? Oh wait. It’s you. Of course you are,” Tenebrae said, without any heat to his voice. He pointed at the notebook. “I want to see that in action.”

“I was just waiting on you! But before we do that.” Erick pulled a small box out of his pocket. He held it toward Tenebrae, saying, “Want some Stat gems?”

Tenebrae eyed the box, but he did not reach up to take them.

Erick could already see why, for an Ophiel turned on [Blood Sight] as soon as Tenebrae’s door opened. The man could barely hold himself together. His muscles looked atrophied. His heart pumped slow. He was drugged up right now, for sure, and with a bit of [Mana Sight], Erick saw that he was supporting himself with several magics. [Force Platform] derivatives, no doubt. Tenebrae was not walking under his own power.

Erick had overheard most of the inadequacies of healing magic over the last few days. [Greater Treat Wounds] was great to repair physical damage that could be repaired, and that did not have time to set in. [Regeneration] was great for bringing back lost limbs or body parts, or healing chronic damage. [Soul Healing] was a rare magic that adjusted the soul to better heal the body. [Restoration] was decent for healing age-related problems, but even that failed past a certain point.

For while healing did not accelerate aging, it could not decelerate aging, either.

The one solution he could have taken, he did not. Tenebrae could have gotten a new [Polymorph] form, and lived a whole new life. ‘Tenebrae’ would die, though, eventually. That ‘Familiar Form’ wouldn’t age if it wasn’t lived in, but eventually, death came for all living things.

And besides that, the ‘[Polymorph] Solution’ was abhorrent to every civilized nation in the world, and was not a viable option for those who still had their morals. For all of his bluster and power, Tenebrae was not the sort of person to take another’s form, even if it would save his life, even if he could take the form of someone who was already doomed to die, like any of the people headed for any executioner block in any city the world over.

Now that was a very loud conversation between Obsidia and everyone else. The black rock woman had argued that ‘all these bodies just lying around after executions the world over! Just take one! They’re not using them anymore!’. No one confronted her words, directly. Most people just went quiet when she started arguing her points. The only people inside the Castle that Obsidia did not talk to, to try to get them to convince the rest, was Erick and his people. Erick had no idea what he would say if Obsidia did try to talk to him about ‘the [Polymorph] Solution’.

Erick could not do anything for Tenebrae’s actual problem, but he could help in his own way, and thus, the gems.

Erick continued to hold the box toward Tenebrae, saying, “I know that Stats can’t really help, but they might be able to make you feel better. I know they made me feel a whole lot better. I should have offered them days ago, but… I know they won’t actually help you.”

Tenebrae took the small stone box. He could move his arms! Erick smiled.

Tenebrae thumbed open the box, revealing silver spheres nestled in fabric. He asked, “What kind are they?”

“All Stat.” Erick added, “Well. All of the four original Stats. If you want one of the New Stats—”

Rock stepped in, saying, “No. We have no idea what the new Stats do.”

Tenebrae softly said, “I can decide for myself, Rock. But you’re right. No experimenting with Stats, today.”

Rock scowled at Erick, then said to Tenebrae, “You shouldn’t even use those. Stat sickness would be just as bad as an unknown New Stat.”

“There’s no Stat sickness with true All Stat gems.” Erick said, “At the most, it feels like waking up in the morning, or something like that. Perfectly natural. But, you’re right. I don’t know how they’ll react to someone with health issu— You don’t have to use them if you don’t want. They’re each plus 10 to All Stats, and I made them all at the same time, so there shouldn’t be any resonance issues with attaching them to a single item, or splitting them up.”

‘Resonance’. Ha! Erick had laughed when he looked back at his Stat enchantment books and their mention of ‘resonance’. Completely wrong, and yet, not. It was little things like that, and a whole mess of preconceived notions from immortals, that likely confused the Arcanaeum Consortium into teaching that Force and mana had some relationship with sound and light.

Tenebrae flipped the box shut and handed it to Rock, saying, “I’ll look at them later. Let’s go see you make some magic.”

“Do you want to go in person? Not through a [Scry]?”

“I have witnessed new base spells only once in my life, and that was when the Headmaster made that [Condense Hydrogen] spell in front of us at your little talk at Oceanside, and then again, when I made my own tiny Particle spells, later.” Tenebrae stoutly said, “I wish to see new magic shake the heavens before I die, Erick. The entire sky, if you would be so kind.”

Rock turned concerned. Obsidia frowned, then wiped away a silver tear.

Tenebrae, however, was completely engrossed in the moment.

Erick said, “I think I can do… exactly that, perhaps. So… We need somewhere without anything destructible. We can’t do this here. Want to take a trip to the northern coast? That’s only a few lightsteps away.”

“We will not be doing that.” Tenebrae said, “Rock here will take us wherever you want in the world. You can do your magic there, and then we can come back.”

Erick knew he wouldn’t lose his Worldly Path Quest unless he actively chose to abandon it, so a little trip through a [Gate] wouldn’t be a problem at all. If it was, he would have already lost his Quest, just by stepping into the Green Labyrinth.

So going through a [Gate] to somewhere else? Sounds like fun!

Erick excitedly said, “Let’s go somewhere I haven’t seen before, with wide open spaces. Big spaces and an open sky.” He added, “And water. By the ocean? Not Oceanside. But yes. By the Ocean.”

Tenebrae said, “Pick a location, Rock.”

Poi stepped out of the guesthouse, saying, “Teressa and Jane are out hunting and if Ophiel leaves here, something will attack.”

Tenebrae scowled, saying, “We’ll be back soon enough and Slate and the others can defend the castle for an hour or four. We are fifteen kilometers up. All the big monsters can’t get up here. So get your [Greater Treat Wounds] rod ready, Poi.” He chuckled, weakly, then said, “I want to see Erick bleed for his magic.”

“… Ha?” Erick chuckled nervously, saying, “I hope it won’t be that bad.”

Poi leisurely closed his eyes, as though processing that the old man wanted to see blood. Then he said, “Okay.” He walked into the room and came right back out wearing his armor with the healing rod in hand. He placed the rod in the pocket of his thigh armor, and said, “I have sent messages to Jane and Teressa. They will come back here to help defend the place while we are gone.”

Erick perked up. “Oh. Okay! That works. Thank you, Poi.”

Rock gestured to the left. A purple shimmer coalesced in the air—

“Oh!” Erick said, “We’re going already?”

“Yes,” Tenebrae said. “I’ve got five good hours in me, then it’s back to bed.”

Erick looked around with his [Greater Lightwalk], checking his supplies both on hand and in his room.

… Nothing he couldn’t live without.

—Purple light expanded, dilating, becoming a window to another land, and then a door. A breeze blew onto the beach beyond, scattering white sand away from the purple portal. Tenebrae and Obsidia wasted no time as they stepped through. Erick and Poi followed, while Rock took up the rear.

Erick had already peeked through the [Gate] well before he walked through, using his sunform to scout out the place. He saw nothing untoward.

With a single step, he had moved across the world!

Erick marveled at his new life, again. And then he marveled at their new location.

White sand stretched for kilometers upon kilometers from south-ish to north-ish, while the wind blew in from the ocean to the west, and green prairie stretched toward the east. In the distant east, across the sandy dunes, trees grew. In the west, laid an ocean that was as clear and as pure as few places were on Earth. There were sand bars under those waters; the ocean was shallow for a long ways away, as far as Erick could see.

This was actually a really nice place.

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye came through the [Gate] along with a few Ophiels, but then the purple portal snapped shut and the caster of the ethereal eye and all the Ophiels not right beside Erick were way out of range. The [Scry] eye popped. Erick lost feeling for the remaining Ophiel; they dissipated, too.

Not really a problem. Erick just started summoning more Ophiel. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye could return in his own time.

A cool breeze blew in from the ocean’s surface. The sky was blue. Few clouds marred the heavens, and Erick felt pleasant, watching the sun shine brightly above the horizon. It was almost sunset here, too. They must be near-enough the same longitude.

Erick said, “This is a nice beach!” He cast a [Cascade Imaging] through one of his Ophiel, atop the dunes and twenty meters out of the way, searching for rads; searching for monsters. He let that run.

Tenebrae eyed the misty spell as it became less misty. “What is that for?”

“Searching for monsters,” Erick answered. One cursory examination later, and not thirty seconds into the run time of the spell, he said, “Doesn’t appear to be many monsters. The spell needs a few minutes to be sure, though.”

Tenebrae dismissed caring about Erick. He said to Obsidia, “Chair.”

“Of course.” The black rock woman conjured a fluffy black chair onto the beach. “Let me help—”

Tenebrae grumbled as he patted away her hands, not accepting that much help, and set himself in the chair. He relaxed into the fluffiness, then said, “It’s too hot!”

“Of course, dad.” Obsidia cast a [Temperature Ward] across her father.

“Too windy! Too bright!”

Obsidia cast a [Weather Ward] and then a disk of shadows above and behind him, blocking some of the light. Erick smiled, then decided to help out.

He [Stoneshape]d some of the white sand into stone, then into a pair of sunglasses without the ‘glasses’ part. For that missing piece, he cast a permanent lightmask on them, creating some polarized glasses, exactly as he had made for his own strolls through the Crystal Forest, and for the workers and delvers of the light dungeon he had left in the Headmaster’s care.

He handed the pair to Tenebrae, saying, “Here. Sunglasses. Makes these sunny places easier on the eyes.”

In the center of the handoff, Rock said, “No magic, father. Don’t [Inspe—”

“Bah! I can use some! Doctor said I could.” Tenebrae took the glasses. He put them on, then looked around, pausing to look at the water the most. “This is a weird fucking lightward. How come can I see into the water better? My [Inspect] isn’t helping me identify the effect.”

“I can’t answer that without giving a lot away, but the [Ward] is permanent and should come back if you don’t disturb the effect too much. Have fun figuring it out, when you get better.”

Tenebrae frowned, hummed, then said, “Very well. I’m going to pick apart your gems, too, so it’s a good thing you gave me eight of them.” He waved a hand forward. “Get on with it.”

Erick checked the map. No nearby monsters. He switched it to search for people, then said, “I’m mapping for people, now. Soon as that clears, we’re clear. No monsters nearby, though, which is kinda unexpected. Where are we, anyway?”

Tenebrae scoffed at Erick. “No monsters at all?”

Erick amended, “There are some 20 kilometers from here. In the water and on land. Mostly in the water.”

“We’re somewhere in Archipelago Nergal, though. One of the many small islands,” Tenebrae said. “Did you pick a rare, monsterless island?”

Rock said, “West of the North Arc of the Archipelago. It’s a good location. About 10,000 kilometers from Eidolon and Continental Nergal, which are down past the East Arc, and around 7000 kilometers from Nergal in the west.”

Tenebrae said, “Rather uninhabited, I would say.”

Erick looked to the map. Zero people, except for the four currently around Erick, which made five. “This seems like excellent land, though. Why no people?”

“There’s nothing here and extra land doesn’t matter. Obviously.” Tenebrae said, “If there was something here, then there would be people!”

“Okay. Well… That… Makes sense.”

Rock said, “No powerful people means no defense means no people at all.”

“Right.” Erick nodded. “I knew that.”

Tenebrae smirked and chuckled. “Did you? Hard to tell what you know sometimes.”

“Hard to tell what I know most of the time.” Erick clapped his hands, then stepped forward on the beach, saying, “So let’s test my thoughts, and see if the mana agrees with me!”

“Yes! Yes! On with the show!” Tenebrae snapped at Rock, “Down in front!”

Rock had been slightly in front of Tenebrae, between him and Erick, but at his father’s outburst he moved to his father’s side, to guard the old archmage between him and Obsidia.

Erick made a [Prismatic Ward] to the side, for Poi, which Poi gladly took, then he looked to the other three people. “Are you going to defend yourself? Or do you want me to? I can, if you want.”

Tenebrae harrumphed, eyeing Obsidia. Obsidia moved into action, and suddenly, a splash of massive, Solid Ward crystal, flashed around Obsidia, Tenebrae, and Rock. Tenebrae nodded from inside the protected space. Erick nodded back. He had no idea how good of a protection Obsidia had provided, but he trusted them to know what they were doing.

Erick turned toward the ocean.

He breathed in the humid air, feeling the salt on his skin and the taste of brine in his mouth. He focused on the world before him, on the tiny sounds of birds flitting across the sands in the distance, on the crashing waves that made the water seem inviting, on the sounds of the wind rustling through the grassy dunes, and the shuffling of sand.

Ophiel’s violin sounds seemed to echo, somehow, in the vast open space all around them, in time to the crashing of waves, and the flow of the sky.

He breathed, and became one with the world, his sense of the mana around him becoming like an extension of himself. Perfectly normal perfection manifested in his mind, and everything he saw was good. Everything was normal, and exactly as it should be. This would be the first spell; the one that would negate the other three, and possibly a lot more.

He spoke,

“The banshee’s wail is gone today.

“The drummer’s drum has no reprise.

“The piano’s gone, it’s so passe.

“Hear now of death! We eulogize

“past lows and highs. We [Normalize].”

Wind rustled, waves crashed, the sun shone down on everything, and nothing was out of order.

Magic filled the world, and nothing changed.

And yet, everything changed, as it had done before, and as it would do again.

Erick knew his eyes glowed white, and that Poi tapped him with the rod because blood dripped down from his nose, but the normal release that happened at the end of every spell did not happen. The mana held him, waiting. He had teased a new possibility as he reinforced normality, but the mana wanted more than that.

As blue boxes blinked into Erick’s sight, he blinked them away.

Tenebrae said something but Erick didn’t hear. Poi quickly realized something was wrong, but all Erick heard was the vibration of the universe, and that vibration demanded a voice.

So Erick went right into the next spell.

He spoke again,

“The singer’s come again today

“The band is here with more allies

“A symphony doth start to play

“Now hear this! A galvanize

“of all that’s here. We [Harmonize]!”

The world crystallized.

Waves suddenly began to crash upon the sand in sync. Grasses waved in harmony. Wind blew in lockstep. Schools of fish became perfectly organized, which would not normally be odd at all, but then they started to swim in cube formations, and tetrahedrons, and rectangular prisms.

The three hearts of the three mortals on the beach each began to beat in sync.

Obsidia’s crystalline Solid Ward did not block this new magic.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

If Erick had been able to, he would have seen this:

Tenebrae gasped, just a bit, a smile on his own face to match the one on Erick’s, and the tiny one on Poi’s. Rock leaned over on one side of his father, suddenly concerned like the world was ending. Obsidia did the same thing on Tenebrae’s other side. Both of them did not realize that they moved like mirrors to each other, and then both of them suddenly realized that they did.

Erick felt a pain in his chest that mirrored the pain in Poi and Tenebrae’s chest, but then Poi healed Erick and no one bled at all. Erick felt older. Poi likely felt older, too. But Tenebrae felt, and looked, briefly, like a man half his age.

A blue box appeared. Erick couldn’t see it.

Mana was already rushing out of his throat.

He spoke,

“A note is held, to high refrain!

“The chorus sings to glorify

“A power builds, of high arcane!

“Now hear this! We purify

“all that’s here. We [Amplify]!”

The waves crashed higher. The wind turned sharp, like kitchen knives. The ground began to shake. Everything fell out of resonance with everything else, and into its own personal hell.

Erick bled from his eyes, his ears, his mouth and his nose. Poi tapped him with the rod, telling him to stop. Tenebrae, Rock, and Obsidia were gone. Erick did not notice their departure. He was in the grip of the mana and it would not let him go.

From outside of himself, Erick watched.

He didn’t so much speak as simply will the world to shift.

Sand blasted away. Erick floated in the light. The beach dropped out from under his feet, becoming a crater that extended into the ocean. Saltwater rushed away from him. Poi, unable to hold his ground, was flung backward, through the [Prismatic Ward] and into the dunes beyond.

Words came forth from every part of Reality.

“A song is snapped; fragmented breaks.

“Chaos walks, there’s no accord.

“A power stills, and nothing shakes.

“Now hear this, and be floored.

“Witness the apple of [Discord]!”

Harmony broke.

Waves crashed and did not rise again. Schools of fish broke apart, the individuals each swimming in different directions. The wind stilled, unsure of which way to go. Ophiels flew in every direction, unprepared for whatever Erick had done, and with no idea how to act. Poi was somewhere in the dunes, crawling out of the sand. The rod had been in his hands before, but now, it was not.

The only semblance of normalcy was when the ocean broke the bank of the beach and crashed into the crater that Erick had dug out of the sand. Erick, though, crashed into his body, all semblance of harmony with the universe gone, completely. And then he fell down into the churn of seawater below him, into the crater he had made. He was already unconscious.

– – – –

Poi watched as Erick did some stupid shit that no one would have considered as stupid until after the fact. Erick got hurt, again.

Don’t anyone worry, though! Poi was there to save the day, as always.

Anyway.

Poi pulled himself out of the sand, [Dispel]ed the effect in the sky, then found his rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] with a quick application of [Telekinesis]. And then he briefly despaired. The rod was almost dead. The light at the bottom of the silver object was barely visible; low charge.

Half a second had passed since the magic ended and Erick fell into a crater filled with water.

Poi almost wasted time cursing at how the rod had been at full charge not five minutes ago. He was already diving into the new crater in the beach and reaching for Erick with mental force.

He found Erick fast enough. The crater was five meters deep and a swirl of water and sand and a few rocks, but Erick was there, bleeding out, like always.

Poi did not let himself get angry. He just tugged Erick onto the beach and did a quick check. Ah. Yeah. Lungs full of water and blood. Not breathing. Not good. He tapped Erick with the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] and the rod broke; the last charge used.

The magic took hold, though. Erick’s body began to repair, but the magic could only do so much while there was water in his lungs. Time to fix that.

Poi telekinetically hoisted Erick into the air, by his feet, then [Airshape]d a breeze into his open mouth. Bloody water came out, as well as the contents of a recent snack. Cheese and crackers, Poi remembered.

Erick gasped, coughed most heartily, and pure disorientation flooded out from him. Poi had to gird his own mind in order to stop from falling over himself, but he managed to set Erick back down before the man could get even more disoriented. Erick retched for a while, then calmed, then went unconscious again. This time, he breathed just fine.

Poi avoided the sick on the sand and sat down beside Erick.