158, 2/2

The panic after Goldie’s departure had caused more damage to yurts and people than anything else, and so, once the loudness and disorganization died down and the threat was gone, Niyazo, Koori, and the cowherds and warriors were all gathered and informed of what had happened.

Erick watched it all from the seat of his yurt, almost a kilometer outside of the re-gathered Clan Pale Cow. Erick hadn’t moved his yurt away from the others; everyone else had moved away from him. But they hadn’t told him to leave; not yet, anyway.

From what Erick could see, they were still deciding if they wanted to ask him to leave, and Niyazo was pushing back hard against those scared voices who wanted the archmage gone. Surprisingly, when Koori gave an unbiased account of what had happened, she didn’t throw Erick under the yurt. The woman was actually standing up for Erick’s words and actions in the face of an unexpected Shade.

And that was nice.

Teressa sat on the edge of Erick’s yurt, her booted feet resting upon the plain as she looked toward Clan Pale Cow. In a relaxed tone, she said, “I had forgotten about how it felt to be around a Shade.”

Jane asked, “When was the last time you were around one? That close, I mean.”

“Three years ago, back when I was still on active duty.” Teressa said, “Cludolphis, the Shade of Mending. We were on a rescue mission to find a missing Healer after some adventurers had killed some monsters and wrecked some spires. We took too long. Cludolphis found us when she came to repair a spire. She required us to take tea with her, and then she killed one of the new recruits when they failed to sip tea properly.” She added, “The guy didn’t expect to get in that much trouble for he had heard that the Shades were lenient against new people. Well… Shows how much he knew.”

Nirzir held herself against the doorframe to the yurt like she was holding it for support. She hadn’t said a word since Goldie arrived and then left. Wide-eyed and all ears, she listened.

Poi said, “I met Crimsonair four years ago. He mutilated a teammate into a minor abomination for the transgression of speaking too loud.” Poi continued, “I went to the city side of the Army after that.”

Jane stared at nothing. “I expected more visits than that.”

Teressa smirked, saying, “You got a lot more face time with them than the normal person, Jane.”

Jane nodded.

Erick explained, “Both of those Shades are dead now. Cludolphis was on Tania’s side during the final battle. Crimsonair was on Fallopolis’s side. I saw them fighting. The Shade of Mending was floating inside of a crystalline Solid Ward to protect themselves, the Shade of Blood was a giant monster of red fluid. I think Crimsonair killed Cludolphis, and then he was killed in turn by someone else on Tania’s side. But it was all rather chaotic. I have no idea what actually happened there. At the end, I was just… Trying to survive, and ensure the good outcome.”

Nirzir broke her silence, asking, “The good outcome was millions of highlanders dead in a war sparked by the Shades?”

Nirzir’s tone was not accusative. She was just perplexed. Confused. She needed to know. Erick needed to know what the heck she was saying, though, because the cause and effect in what Nirzir was saying was rather spread out. But he understood her logical trail, soon enough.

And so Erick answered, “I think it was more that the Shades are trying to repent, and they knew of what was happening over here, and so, in Goldie’s mind, Songli ascending to Empire was the good outcome.” He explained, “As of years ago, Terror Peaks was already headed to war; it only erupted now because of the chelation treatments pioneered by Songli, and because everyone is looking to fill the power vacuum left by Last Shadow’s Feast. Terror Peaks tried to strike hard, and everyone underestimated.” He looked to the young girl, and said, “Keep in mind that the Shades might have been culled, and their priesthood dissolved by divine mandate from Melemizargo himself, but the base desire of the Darkness is to drive people to strength. That will never change. Do you understand?”

Nirzir nodded, a little.

Erick nodded in return, saying, “And so, to drive Songli to strength, Goldie and Queen set up some pillars, ready for your nation to knock them down and to build upon the bounty that followed. But they expected more out of Songli than Songli brought, and at the same time, they didn’t expect Terror Peaks to be as strong as they were…” Erick paused. He looked to Poi. “That part about the extra Extreme Light materials and the accusation against the Headmaster regarding [Duplicate]. What is your opinion?— Your opinion on the whole thing, actually.”

“I can’t read Shades, but professionally…” Poi stared off into the middle distance, thinking. He came back, saying, “The Shade’s view is twisted and you should never trust her, but I don’t think she was lying about her intentions, and how she thought the war would go. Her accusation against the Headmaster is unfounded, though.”

Erick let that lay for a moment.

No one spoke for a while.

Erick interrupted the silence, asking everyone, “What do you think is going to happen with Pale Cow?”

Poi said, “I have no idea. Clan Pale Cow seems to be getting hold of themselves and recognizing that their reaction was terrible.”

“These people are not prepared for what is going to happen around them if we stay.” Teressa said, “But they’re getting better.”

Jane remained silent.

Nirzir said nothing.

Erick watched Clan Pale Cow through Ophiel, while listening to the gathering with his own ears. The sound carried well on the plains.

The clan was gathered for a speech from Niyazo. The warlord spoke a patriotic message about knowing the monsters in their midst, and how Erick had already exposed those monsters once, and how he would do so again. There was light chastisement about how everyone freaked out, but then Niyazo sandwiched those words with compliments about how, during the actual Shade visitation, everyone was outwardly calm and everyone did everything as they should have done.

Teressa scoffed at that. “Only the people nearest to us actually understood what was happening, and that was only halfway through the visit. Everyone else remained perplexed the whole time. Some thought the Shade was an angel.”

“Yeah…” Erick said, “I’m not sure why the Shade of Assassination uses the biggest sword she can find. I would expect smaller weapons. Less angelic looks, too.”

Teressa said, “Bisecting is harder to heal from than brain stabs, or whatever.”

“The angel-angle has always been an oddity.” Poi said, “We don’t know why, either. It might be an affectation, or a real deal. Goldie has always been mostly-unknown to us.”

Erick said, “I got the distinct impression that she was going to get a dragon fight going even with my refusal. Did it look like that to you?”

“Yes,” Poi said.

“Maybe,” Jane said.

“I don’t know,” Teressa said.

Nirzir breathed out, “Yes.”

Erick nodded, then he said, “Well. Then. I feel I need to do something against that. A kinder way, perhaps.” He raised his hand and cast a wardlight upon the roof of his yurt, shaping light into a globe of Veird that rotated one way, while text slowly rotated the other way, like the ticker on a stock market. “Maybe talking will prevent an all out war.”

Erick’s main message read: ‘Let’s Talk About Solutions.’ And then in smaller text, below the main message, it read ‘Appointments available and preferred. Paperwork required – No [Telepathy]. Confidentiality assured unless waived. I can meet you through my [Familiar]. Violence is met with violence, peace is met with peace. Harsh words are fine!’

Jane glanced upward, then she frowned a little. “Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Oh yes. It absolutely is.” Erick said, “But the point is to talk to dragons, so I might as well try to discuss problems with everyone who has problems. It’s what I used to do, but this is certainly a larger scale.” He added, “Maybe it’s a bad idea, but there’s no harm in trying something new.”

Teressa lifted her head toward Clan Pale Cow, saying, “They noticed the sign.”

“It is meant to be noticeable.” Erick paused. He asked, “I could make it less noticeable?”

“It’s not like you made it as massive and as glowing as you could have.” Jane said, “It’s still a big damned globe of light and a very serious invitation to danger.”

“There’s always danger, Jane.” Erick said, “And besides, a lot of archmages have systems like this in place so that they can meet with clients and otherwise.”

“I’m not complaining, dad.” Jane said, “The Headmaster has a whole department dedicated to organizing how people approach him for help, but isn’t this a bit soon for you? I mean—”

Poi grunted out, “Er. Sir.”

Erick looked to the man—

Poi had about a hundred tendrils of thought invading his mind.

“Ah. Shit.” Erick said, “I explicitly wrote up there—!”

Poi exclaimed, “It’s fine. I can—” All at once, most of the tendrils of thought evaporated, leaving him with five. He breathed, then said, “I fixed it on my end. Uh. I told them that you would need a physical application for an appointment, dropped in a box.” Poi looked around. “A box made of the yurt? Is that okay—” He twitched as another hundred tendrils tried to touch him, and then were rebuffed. “Er.” Poi looked to Erick. “That will have to be okay. I instituted a feedback loop for all inquiries.”

Erick said, “I did not mean to put this on you, Poi; you are obviously not expected to fulfill any of this. And yes: I’ll put a box up over here.” With a wave of his hand, just so that people would know that he was doing something, Erick Shaped the front-right corner of the yurt, drawing the wood from the surroundings up into a large, double mailbox. With another cast, he added a spinning globe of white light atop the box, along with more glowing letters. “There. ‘Paperwork goes in the box. NO [Telepathy]’. That should be good.”

“Much better.” Poi relaxed. “They were all tiny inquiries, but they’re usually not all piled up like that. I think most of them wanted… I’m not sure.” He looked to the box, and said, “You need paperwork, now.”

“Yes, I do.” Erick got up from his chair, saying, “I did not expect something to happen so quickly.”

Nirzir whispered, “People always watch from the sky.”

Not a single person glanced upward, for they did not need to physically look up to see what might be up there. Everyone except for Nirzir was already behaving as though they were under scrutiny. And then Nirzir seemed to realize her words, and her stance of holding onto the doorframe, and how weak it made her appear. So she let go of the door frame, straightened up, and stood strong, banishing her fear.

Jane glanced to the young girl, and held back a gentle smile.

Erick, meanwhile, nodded to Nirzir, and said, “I’m always popping [Scry] eyes when I’m out and about like this. Or, rather, Ophiel pops those eyes. I can’t do a thing about the far-away ones, though—” He had a thought. He said, “I once saw the Headmaster clap a [Scry] eye and I think it hurt the person on the other side. Do you know how to do that?”

Nirzir said, “I would love to know how to do this magic. If you find out, will you please tell me?”

Erick smiled. “Of course.”

He guessed it was [Scry], but inverted with Destruction, or something. He didn’t actually know, though.

Nirzir bowed a little, then straightened.

Erick looked to the ground, saying, “And here’s the paper.”

Erick had Ophiel running a job in the background, but now that job was complete. Exactly where Erick was already looking, a stack of white paper, bound in brown paper and twine, appeared in front of him, plopping onto the eternal stonewood. Nirzir only jumped a little bit; everyone else had been prepared. One second later, a pot of ink [Teleport Object]’d right beside the papers, while off to the side, a block of scrap metal plonked down onto the cart. They were the three objects necessary to make paperwork; Ophiel had done well. Erick patted the little guy on his shoulder and Ophiel twittered in response.

With a controlled sunform and precise [Metalshape]ing, Erick constructed a stamp that would fit the paperwork. When he was done, the resultant metal looked a bit like a branding iron, but much, much larger; it was sized to fit the paper. Erick smiled as he applied ink to the iron, and stamped out his first page. And then he frowned. The words were splotchy and illegible. A minor tweak to the metal fixed that. The next page turned out much better.

There wasn’t much to the text; just the normal stuff. Name, topic of discussion, desired outcome, desired time of meeting (along with second and third desired time), some caveats to the whole thing that all favored Erick (which amounted to him saying that he might not even meet the petitioner if he didn’t feel like it), and a few other things.

One of those ‘few other things’ was a box for a thumbprint of the petitioner, done in their own blood, inside the provided space. Asking for the blood of a person was a nefarious enough demand to weed out most casual inquiries, but more than that, it was a good way for Erick to locate the petitioner. This reasoning was even stated right beside that box, too.

Erick printed out a good fifty pages, drying them with heat and light as he went, and then he set those pages into a holder beside the appointment box. A final application of Shaping upon the paired boxes informed anyone who saw the two boxes to ‘Take One’ and ‘Leave One’, and ‘Thank you’.

By the time he was done with that minor job, Niyazo and Koori were walking his way. After a minute they reached his yurt and hopped aboard. Both looked serious. Both were putting on a show for everyone else watching from the rest of the clan, a full kilometer away.

“Welcome to my yurt.” Erick asked, “Are you revoking clanfriend status?”

Niyazo blanked for a good half second, as though he could not believe what he was hearing, then he recovered. He said, “Not unless you wish to leave. The disorder after the woman’s departure was something I did not think we needed to work on, for apparently the stories of danger told around the cauldrons are not good enough preparation for when the shadows truly appear.”

Koori said, “We know who you are. We know what you have done. Some people forgot that. I, even, forgot that. With great discipline, Clan Pale Cow can weather this storm. We are prepared.” She added, “I formally apologize for my rudeness today, and yesterday, Erick.”

That they were so clearly forgiving him for what he had brought to their doorstep… It was a surprise. But it shouldn’t have been. The people of Veird had been dealing with Shades since the Sundering. Those monsters or their envoys could appear wherever they wished to appear, and it was up to everyone else to push them back. When it came to the Shades, everyone else was on the same side, and animosities were discarded.

Erick said, “Then I and my people will continue along this path. Do you wish for us to maintain a distance from your clan?”

“Please join us for meals and community,” Niyazo said, “But maintaining a kilometer distance at all other times might be… reasonable. If you do not mind.”

“Acceptable,” Erick said. “Agreed.”

Koori spoke, “As far as our conversation: I am aware that you might not want to continue it, but I would like to.” She glanced upward at the sign Erick had made, then back to Erick. “Shall I make an appointment?”

Erick smiled softly as he grabbed a sheet of ‘printed’ paper. He handed it to Koori, saying, “I will make some time for you, but I also expect to have a lot of talks with other people, too.”

Koori took the sheet of paper like it was a dangerous object, then she nodded to Erick. She turned and hopped off the yurt, and began walking away.

Niyazo remained for another few moments, to say, “The caravan is continuing. Thank you for staying, Erick.”

“Of course, Niyazo.”

And then the warlord followed his wife back to their clan.

Things proceeded rather normally, from there. Not twenty minutes later, Erick was back in his chair, feeling the wind upon his face, as the cart trundled along to the north. To the left, Clan Pale Cow’s yurts trundled along just as they had been before, except now the nearest one was a kilometer away.

Jane sat down beside him, saying, “So what happened to being incognito?”

“I can still do that, just not right now.” Erick added, “Later, for sure.”

She glanced toward the mailbox. “Ophiel likes his new perch.”

Erick had constructed a perch upon the mailbox, above the glowing globe for Ophiel to stand upon. The little guy took well to his new spot, singing in small musical sounds while the wind rustled across his stretched out wings.

Erick smiled a little. “He does.”

“Anyone pick up a form yet? Invisibly, perhaps?”

“Not that I’ve seen. I’ve counted the papers a few times, too, and they’re all still there. People were willing to send messages, though, so maybe the watchers far above are just waiting till I’m not looking? I’m not sure.”

Near silence returned, but Ophiel was still chirping away in a jazz-like rendition of some music he had overheard elsewhere.

Jane asked, “Do you want to talk about what Goldie said? About what the dragons are after?”

He did. And yet, at the same time, he did not. For his feelings on what Goldie had said were complicated. He was still figuring out most of those feelings, too.

And so, Erick said, “Not yet.”

Jane nodded.

The caravan rode on.

– – – –

Sitting in his chair, feeling the wind upon his face, Erick thought of dragons and Wizards and Idyrvamikor’s curse, and what made one Wizard more ‘powerful’ than another… And Erick came to a conclusion that he already had, long ago: He did not know too much about Wizards, at all. Oh, sure, there were the easy deductions that he could make with existing knowledge, but joining together everything that he had learned from Goldie wasn’t going to get him very much further than he already was.

He was still going to do it, though.

Several days ago, Erick met with the Dragon Stalkers and they gave him specific examples of small ‘Illusion-based’ Wizardry.

Fake Kill Notifications. Casting spells without the need for mana. Sin Seeker Avoidance. Blue boxes for spells one does not have. Status Fakery.

And then there were the larger Wizardries which the Mirage Dragon has never displayed, which would mark that dragon as a true Wizard:

[Strike]ing as though a person had no Health. Taking a spell out of a person for one’s own use. Emptying a person of their mana. Casting spells faster than the Script Second.

If there was no trickery involved, and if those actions were exactly as they appeared to be —direct effects; not heavily nuanced magic that only appeared to be Wizardry— then they were the actions of a Wizard.

In the broadest possible sense of ‘what is a Wizard’, Wizards could cast spells outside of the Script, without care for the Bans and the structure that the Script imposed upon everyone. But that was a superficial overview of Wizardry.

Shades also cast spells outside of the Script, using the Old Cosmology methods of magic that were still taught inside Brightwater, inside Ar’Kendrithyst. Erick wasn’t too sure what that meant, exactly, but he was pretty sure that they shaped their souls and then cast spells that way; whatever that meant.

Shades were a special kind of monster, though. All other monsters cast innate magics that the Script quantified after the monster made their magics. Erick knew what that meant, though, when it came to the sapient monsters, or rather specifically shadelings. Shadelings were automatically matriculated into a specific, monster Script, every single time they came out of their fugue state, or were reborn into another incarnation. Shadelings, like other monsters, only had access to a curated Script.

That was getting off on a tangent, though.

Shades pretended at the power of Wizards, but they were not Wizards.

They were still subject to the Foundational Bans of the Script. They could not propagate spellwork to change the world, for the Propagation Ban prevented that. They could not open a dimensional portal back to the Old Cosmology, for that’s the Dimensional Ban. They could not do things to mana, itself, for that would be against the Infinitesimal Ban.

But a Wizard…

Erick was almost 100% sure that a true Wizard could break any of the Bans. Of all the things Erick knew of Wizards, which was not a lot, he was pretty sure about that fact.

(Another thing was that Wizards made a lot of mana, but understanding that was beyond Erick at this current time, so he let that lie.)

According to the Shades (And Quilatalap), Wizards fell into three categories: Creation, Destruction, and Paradox. Once a Wizard picked one of those directions, they were stuck with their choice. That was what everyone said, but was that true?

Creation and Destruction were very much opposites, if Erick was understanding that correctly. Creation Wizardry wasn’t about shifting one thing into something else and calling that ‘Creation’, after all. It was about actual creation. The manifestation of something from nothing.

Destruction was the opposite; the shifting of something into nothing.

Unless all of that was wrong? Did every lay person get it wrong? Erick had certainly never talked to a Wizard before… Except for Melemizargo?

Melemizargo didn’t count.

Perhaps the three choices were not a trinity, but a line? A line with Creation on one end and Destruction on the other, and everything in between was Paradox? No. Wait. That didn’t fit with time travel, which was a known Paradox Wizard ability.

The Creation/Destruction/Paradox was probably a true trinity.

Bah! Erick could just ask people for these answers. He could talk to the shadows under the grass or under his yurt, right now, and see what Melemizargo had to say about all of this. That seemed like asking for a bad time, though.

Anyway.

Wizards. And Dragons.

Whatever dragons wanted with Wizards probably had to do with using Paradox Wizardry against the Infinitesimal Ban, to change something about the dragon in question, to make them immune to the Dragon Blood Curse.

Was that correct? It seemed… yes?

Yes.

That had to be it.

The dragons certainly didn’t want their existence ‘created’ into a cure? That didn’t make sense.

They probably didn’t want their Curse removed, either, since the Curse was actually upon Dragon Essence itself.

Yes. A dragon likely wanted a Wizard to Paradox their Dragon Essence into something other than what it was, but which allowed them to retain their ‘dragony’ powers. That seemed like ‘Paradox’ all the way.

But…

The Dragon Stalkers were convinced that dragons were inherently Wizardly, but in small ways, and with Goldie’s suggestions about how Wizards could be classified by degrees of power, then, it was by these facts that Erick knew that the small Wizardries of dragons were not enough to break them of their curse. Or perhaps they could break each other of their curses, if one wanted to sacrifice themselves in order to do so? Most dragons probably weren’t about that.

So where did that put Erick, as a nascent Wizard?

Hunted by dragons, for sure.

And Tenebrae, too, now that he thought about it. That old archmage had asked Erick if he knew of any Wizards, because if he did, then they could go retrieve that Wizard, and deliver that Wizard to the dragons to learn the secrets of [Gate]. Which, according to Tenebrae, would not result in the death of that Wizard, but which, according to Goldie, would result in the death of that Wizard.

… Tenebrae didn’t seem like the kinda guy to sacrifice someone to gain power. Sure, he would let someone kill themselves, and he would certainly kill someone who was threatening him, but sacrifice? Erick did not think Tenebrae was like that.

Well. Whatever.

There were many reasons Erick had never told anyone that the gods had called him a Wizard. That there was a brand new, confirmed threat against him, because he was a Wizard, was not unexpected.

A lot of gods knew he was a Wizard, though. And so did the Shades.

Kirginatharp probably knew, right? Or maybe not.

Maybe the gods would keep something like that to themselves… unless they wanted Erick dead. Which…

Well.

Sininindi wanted him dead for messing with her storms, right? All she had to do was release one specific fact into the world and then Erick would be hunted by everyone. That Erick wasn’t being hunted right now either meant that she was waiting for the right time, or that she did not want him dead.

After a while of thinking and guessing and deducing, all without any true answers, Erick could only decide on one thing: He was going to ask the dragons about Wizards, whenever one of them showed up.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

And he would never, ever, tell anyone that he was a Wizard, ever. (But he already knew that.)

– – – –

Clan Pale Cow had stopped for the night at a large riverside and Erick parked his yurt a kilometer away, as requested.

Jane offered, “We can go get dinner and bring it back, dad.”

“Or we can just cook here.” Teressa said, “We can [Grow] our own stuff by the river, too.”

They were thinking things were going to go poorly, which was expected, sure. But…

“No no.” Erick said, “We’re going to eat with the clan, and we’re going to be personable. We’ll be back here to sleep soon enough. Besides! Nirzir helped cook! I want to know what it tastes like.”

Nirzir said, “I’m sure it’s as good as they normally make it, but it is just stew.” Nirzir had gotten over much of her fear in the hours since Goldie’s appearance, spending much of that time talking to other people through [Telepathy]. Her voice was now that of a normal-enough teenager, “Though Waveni did promise other dishes!”

Erick smiled. He had already checked out the cooking yurt, so he could confidently say, “I think you’ll be surprised at what they have, tonight.” He hopped off of the yurt, saying, “Come on! Let’s go eat.”

Erick led the way through the trampled grass, and everyone followed. The sun was an hour from setting, and the sky was already awash in orange and gold, while the shadows upon the land seemed purple.

The yurts of the clan had been scattered in an organized manner, looking like white bumps upon the grasses, with people pulled up alongside their friends, or family, but most of those were on the other side of the cooking yurt. The cooking yurt itself was positioned toward Erick’s yurt, which was probably on purpose; Either to make it easier for him to approach, or because others were scared of him.

Probably both.

Zan and Solia, and their accompanying baby, had their yurt parked on this side of the cooking yurt, though. Those people were clearly okay with Erick, which was nice to see. The hawkery was similarly positioned toward Erick’s approach to the cooking yurt, and that was nice, too. Both places were emptied of their people, though, as those people were already at the cooking yurt.

The cooking yurt was visible for kilometers already, but once Erick got close enough, his people could see what Clan Pale Cow had done, and they relaxed. None of them had said anything too judgmental of the clan, but they were thinking it, for sure. Erick was thinking he was unwelcomed, too, but that changed when he saw what they were putting up for him.