160, 2/2

In the evening, Clan Pale Cow set up next to a small riverside. Tomorrow, the clan would move into their designated territory near Ooloraptoor, and begin meeting with other clans, to speak of Integration. Tonight, though, there would be a pre-meeting, and Erick was to host them.

He had already spent all day meeting people from Ooloraptoor already, and though he had done some counter-Hunting, mostly he just spoke of how he would counter-Hunt to a lot of different people. And now, some of those people were coming here.

Erick set up his yurt a kilometer to the south of Pale Cow and Shaped some platforms and tables and chairs out of the grasslands. Wardlights went up on the corners of the raised platform to drive away some of the night, while cushions were taken from the yurt and set upon the chairs to make seating a bit more comfortable than otherwise. And then, it all looked kinda trashy, so Erick spent a good twenty minutes making it look nice.

The raised platform of stone turned white, like marble. The stone chairs were replaced with scrollwork chairs made of eternal stonewood which Erick then embellished with small lightsculptures that resembled tastefully placed gems. Erick combined the assorted tables into one main table with a grand design of curled edges and a perfectly flat surface. And then Erick Shaped a side table for the food to be placed upon. With some [Bug Ward]s the various small insects wouldn’t be a problem, while a subtle [Air Conditioning Ward] kept the space comfortable. He even brought some beer and wine from Alaralti, along with some nice dinnerware. Erick did not go all out; this was not everything that he could have done. But it was a lot, especially for this area of the world.

… With a few last minute adjustments, Erick diminished some of the designs, and erased some of the embellishments, trying for a ‘homey’ atmosphere, and less of an ‘expensive dinner’ theme. He also added a ‘teleport square’ of stone off to the east, so that people would know where to blip in and out without drawing any more attention than usual.

Half an hour later, as the sun began to set in the west, guests began to arrive.

Niyazo, Koori, and Speaker Yorila were the first to walk across the distance from Pale Cow to Erick’s own location. Amasar, the man Erick had saved, and a few other cowherds came with them, carrying trays of food, acting rather professional. The lot of them gazed at Erick’s overt magics, though only Yorila had words to say about the spellwork.

“It’s all so lovely!” Yorila said, “And the colors are perfect sunshine and hearth.” She pointed to a firelight that Erick had set into a warming cauldron. “Is this firelight actually warm, itself, or is that an overlapping effect?”

Erick smiled, saying, “That’s just an overlapping [Ward] effect.”

“I thought that was what I was seeing, but I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins; truly well crafted.”

After they dropped off the food, Amasar and the cowherd went to vacate the premises; they did not feel comfortable here, at all. Amasar did manage to say a few words, though.

“I was a toad in a well, when I made the promise of my life to your service. I can see that I am unneeded.” Amasar bowed quickly, saying, “I apologize for my presumption.”

Ah. He was mad that Erick hadn’t accepted his ‘life debt’. Erick had missed that, until now.

“I didn’t seek you out to accept your promise, Amasar, because I don’t like that sort of debt.” Erick said, “We’re culturally not on the same page. Sorry if my unwillingness to accept your offer has offended you; it was nothing personal.”

Amasar had been very offended, and he had also been very good about not showing that emotion. Now, though, he was offended, relieved, and embarrassed that he had been anything other than professional, all at the same time. But he accepted Erick’s words in the nature they had been given. He said, “If you change your mind, I am here. Thank you for saving my life, Archmage Flatt.”

“You’re quite welcome.” Erick asked, “Are you going to stick around for dinner?”

Amasar said, “It is not my place.”

And with that, Amasar and the cowherds turned and left, returning to their own dinners among the circled yurts of Clan Pale Cow. The people over there were already strumming stringed instruments or telling stories around fires, while cooks dished food out of massive cauldrons.

The teleport square blipped pink with the arrival of more guests.

Sin Seeker Vania had come, along with three Elders; Elder Uriol, Elder Teer, and Elder Puuroi. A few cowherds had come along with them, too, but only to carry their food. Erick already had casual contact with all three of the elders, but it was good to see them in a personal setting. But… Only three of them? And only elders?

Erick asked, “I expected a few more Clan Leaders, and elders, too?”

Elder Uriol, an old man who was easy to get along with, said, “We had a few more coming, but now they’re all in a tizzy because of all the uncovered face stealers. Just updating our methodology has uncovered more and more, all over the place.”

Elder Teer, a stern woman of at least 110, shook her cane a little as she said, “After you stopped for the day we found two more cells among two of the further traveler clans who almost never come to Ooloraptoor. Silver gods; I never thought we would suffer this particular indignity.”

Elder Puuroi, a short and skinny woman of 70, explained, “Which is why we need Integration. If we had a functioning guard force with set rules that worked, then some of these clans wouldn’t have been infiltrated in the first place.”

Teer glared at her smaller counterpart, then turned to Erick, saying, “Usually, we know too much about each other to let something like this happen, but, apparently, my usual objections to Integration have faltered in the face of this disaster.”

Uriol said, “Normal societies have face stealers in them, too. Integration is just one of many necessary solutions to this problem.”

Of the first two Elders, Erick already knew that Puuroi was a staunch Integrator, while Uriol was a moderate, but Erick was just now finding out that Teer was on the side of the True Travelers. Or perhaps she was a neutral Elder like Uriol who had been won over in the face of this current crisis? No way to be sure, at the current moment.

“We’ll deal with the uncovered evil soon enough, but first—” Erick gestured to the table of drinks, saying, “Want a drink?”

Uriol went straight for the beer. “Don’t mind if I do!”

Niyazo and Koori greeted the Elders next, while everyone got their first drinks, and first dishes. Soon, Erick was seated around the main table with all of his guests, as well as Nirzir, who sat on his left. Conversations rapidly turned to Integration talk, and then trade, and then it meandered in another direction. All the while, Nirzir didn’t join any of the conversation topics. Erick wasn’t Nirzir’s father, but he felt a certain responsibility to her, since she was with him, for now, so he wanted to include her in their talks when he could, but there were no opportunities for a long while.

In the third course, though, there was a great opportunity. The conversation had moved on to vehicles and the laws regarding them while inside Songli’s borders.

Elder Teer said, “Almost every caravan and clan gets down to Alaralti for trade with some of their outer cities… Perhaps once a year? Average of once a year. But we’re only able to get into the first cities on the edge! It’s disgraceful of Songli, if you ask me. All these city dwellers purposefully keep us out, and when it’s not purposeful, it’s part of entrenched building practices. For the vast majority of Songli cities, there is simply no room for the yurts and the cows.”

Niyazo smiled, saying, “We travelers do not travel lightly.”

“Like turtles!” Uriol laughed.

Everyone else gave a light, polite chuckle, which was completely lost on Erick. There was some cultural significance there, for sure. So Erick asked, “What about turtles?”

Uriol smiled. “We destroy the roads wherever we go, just like turtles.”

Nirzir looked like she wanted to object, but she did not.

So Erick asked her, “There are [Mend]ing forces out there that clean up the roads, though?”

Nirzir froze under the sudden sights of everyone else. Then she set down her fork, and said, “The roads can handle the tonnage; they’re built for such work loads. But it is the… uh, volume of people, that’s the problem. Caravans travel together, and with all those cows, too. So all grass traveling caravans are required to stay outside the cities. It has become a point of contention, actually.” She added, “But we’ve been at war more often than not, so that’s not lent itself to great relations, either. Though it’s always been Polite… from my understanding.”

Teer smiled, and there was an edge to her countenance. “It usually starts Polite, but then Songli thinks they can renege on their agreements when they lose.”

Nirzir was quick to say, “I don’t know much about that.”

Teer saw an opening, and so she took it. “Then why are you sitting at this table if not to discuss historically significant events and how they relate to the present?”

Erick smiled softly, as he ended further prodding in that direction, “To learn; same as me.”

Nirzir just went silent; she wasn’t quite sure why she was here, either.

Erick let that lay.

“Fair.” Teer asked Erick, “So, speaking of learning. I heard that you came to Veird in a wheeled vehicle. How did your vehicle compare to the style of yurts?”

“Ah? You heard about the car, did you?” Erick asked, “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but it always surprises me when people hear odd things about me.”

“Us oldies often have nothing to do but talk, so we get to it rather thoroughly,” Puuroi said.

Uriol chimed in with, “The body can’t do much beyond moving the mouth, so we make do.”

Puuroi scoffed at the old man, and she wasn’t the only one. Some people looked scandalized, including Vania, but Erick just smiled.

Uriol said, “Take Teer, here, for instance. Though she can whip a brat with her cane if they give her cause.”

“I’ll whip you with my cane, you old turtle,” Teer scowled, but there was no heat to it.

Uriol just laughed.

Teer sighed, then said to Erick, “I heard about your car because 50 years ago my family and I emigrated from the Wasteland Kingdoms, to get away from the war. Been happy here, ever since. I still have some family back there, of course, so when I heard you were in the area, I gave them a call. None of them are highly placed, but I heard some noble family or the Magisterium retrieved some sort of vehicle from your crash site, and when my uncle described it to me…” With a curious and slightly joyful tone, Teer asked, “I have to know: Did you travel the stars in a yurt?”

The other people at the table looked at him as though he had suddenly grown another head, but Erick just chuckled.

“No. Not in a yurt. Here.” Erick held up his hand and conjured a see-through image of a stereotypical car. “We don’t travel in yurts back on Earth. We have homes, but we also have cars to get around in.”

“But you have no magic?” Teer said, “That’s what I heard.”

“The combustion engine.” Erick dismissed the image of the car and conjured a lightward of the engine, the frame, and the wheels, and then he started explaining, “That’s this part here. It uses tiny explosions of gasoline to…”

Erick knew he was giving something away even as he spoke of fuels and rotational forces and gears, but this was fine. Everyone was highly interested in what they were seeing, and what he was telling them. Niyazo and Koori seemed extremely interested, actually. Why were they— Ah. Erick saw the appeal. This was movement without magic. Obviously, this sort of thing would appeal to orthodox grass travelers.

As Erick got to the wheels, though, he did say, “The wheel sections of cars are much different than the wheels of yurts, too; they have to be, both because the turning of the drive shaft has to turn the axle of at least one set of wheels, and so that the wheels can turn independently of each other, so we can take corners in roads. Yurts are very good at going the distance and requiring little maintenance, but they can’t turn at all, and the bouncing can be a bit much if the plains are not level.” He conjured more images in the air as he said, “See this part, here? Instead of an axle on a leaf spring, we have a rigid axle on a set of spring-leveled arms. These arms can move up and down, so that one wheel hitting a rock doesn’t move the whole vehicle; or at least not as much as it could. This gear set in the middle of the axle is what allows the yurt to turn without one wheel skipping out of the dirt, or dragging the dirt along with it as you turn. And… Ah. I think that’s about all there is to how a car works. That’s the major systems, anyway. Questions?”

The elders had been rather interested the whole time he spoke, but Teer was both interested and skeptical.

Teer asked a cutting question, “And how fast can you go?”

… Erick wasn’t quite sure why Teer thought she was asking a cutting question, but he answered anyway, “A hundred kilometers per hour is easy to achieve.”

Teer retreated a little, her skepticism giving way to plotting.

Uriol went next, asking, “Could we commission you to build us a prototype?” Uriol said, “I am interested in the turning capabilities and these gear boxes, for I have never been happy with what the Metal Clans have for sale, and— apologies to the orthodox among us— But all of this is easily workable without this engine. I’m not asking for that part. The axles and the rest would be wonderful, and [Control Machine] isn’t that hard to make.”

Teer frowned at her fellow Elder, saying, “But the engine is the most interesting part! Erick has listed the rate of travel as ‘per hour’, which means that they routinely travel in multiples of hours—” She looked to Erick. “You do travel for multiple hours, correct? Routinely? Without needing to stop for a ‘tired cow’ situation?”

Erick smiled a little. “With a car, you stop when you need fuel or a break, but the only limitations were our own desires to keep going, or not. There were no cows or other animals involved, at all.”

“Ah ha!” Teer smiled. “Yes. The engine is the most important part. [Control Machine] can’t compare, either; not without an excessive amount of mana. All you need is fuel! And not much of it, either. Even gear systems can’t compete with this idea.” She said to Uriol, “We have the same wheel and axle designs he has here; just on smaller vehicles. I know what I’m talking about. The engine is the important part.”

“Then you must be aware of some history that I am not, because I have never seen these ideas before.” Uriol said, “For if we could get ‘cars’, then perhaps our problems with trading among the cities of Songli would vanish, for we could keep our yurts outside the city, and then drive a car into the city to get goods. No need for cows to come along, either!”

Puuroi said, “If we Integrated into a real city then resource scarcity would also vanish, for we could set up Teleport Squares and have permanent trade routes.”

Uriol ignored the smaller elder, and said, “I don’t like only going to the places they allow us to go, Puuroi. I want to explore with a ‘car’.”

Teer scoffed, saying, “I could get you a prototype ‘car’ myself, Uriol. Just ask Metal Rider or my own clan of Silver Yurt. There’s nothing here we don’t already have except for the engine.”

With an accusatory edge to her voice, Puuroi asked, “And why, pray tell me, don’t we have these systems already, Teer?”

“You might as well ask why we don’t all have artifacts in all of our yurts!” Teer said, “They’re too expensive and they require too much specialized knowledge to repair and replace. But I’ve never seen an engine before, and so that is the interesting part.”

The elders moved on to a discussion among themselves that did not involve Erick, at all. They kept those smaller discussions to a minimum, though, and rapidly came back around to wanting a prototype of Erick’s design.

They spoke of cars well into dessert.

Erick would have a prototype ready whenever he got around to making one, for he had never worked on a car before. He also didn’t have any materials for such a construction. The elders rapidly offered to provide all of the raw materials.

This started another round of small debates among the elders as all of them wanted the completed prototype for themselves and their clans, so they each wanted to be the ones to provide the raw materials, all by themselves. Soon enough they came to an agreement; Erick would have his raw materials waiting for him when Pale Cow got to Ooloraptoor tomorrow evening.

Erick was more than happy to have an easy task ahead of him, for a few different reasons. Giving away some axles and some gears seemed non-destructive, especially if the grass travelers already had them; they just didn’t use them for various technical and economical reasons. In addition to that, since the Wasteland Kingdoms of Glaquin were already dissecting Jane’s car, they had all of that stuff, too. Therefore there was no problem at all with spreading around some basic technologies to prevent a monopoly. The elders’ true goal here was to establish working ties with Erick, anyway; no one cared about the tech.

Except for the engine. Teer wanted that engine. Too bad Erick probably couldn’t make one!

But besides all that, Erick plain wanted something to take his mind off of all the recent shit happening around him, and the Blessings that he had been doing in the mountains all this while.

He was up to 500 people Blessed, so far. There had been two attempts to steal the Crystal Star, but both were rather inadequate attempts. The would-be thieves didn’t have Domains, and they had vastly underestimated the amount of [Luminosity] that the [Undertow Star] could put out against forming magics. The [Undertow Star]’s Extreme Light had even brushed against the Crystal Star, too, but to no effect. Perhaps the thieves had been trying to get Erick to break his own artifact? Well, that just seemed impossible. The Crystal Star had a spark of divine fire in it, after all, for Koyabez had helped to make it a greater artifact.

Those attempted thieves were both Blessed now, though, which was probably not what they wanted.

Meh.

Erick didn’t feel sorry for those people. He tried but… it just wasn’t happening.

The night ended with a farewell to the elders, and to Niyazo, Koori, and Yorila.

Soon enough, everyone was inside the yurt, in their beds, or in the chairs scattered around the circular room. It was nearly bedtime, but no one was ready to sleep. It had been like this many times already since this ‘camping trip’ started, for danger seemed an easy possibility, and no one was truly safe out here in the open world. They were still, technically, on high alert, after all.

As [Prismatic Ward]s and Erick’s [Domain of Light] wrapped around the outside of the yurt, leaving the interior comfortably dim, no one was ready for bed, and yet, someone would need to take first shift, and the others would need to stay awake. Erick usually left that up to Poi, and yet Poi hadn’t set out the order.

… Unless they were actually safe, right now? Were they? Was Erick just being paranoid, and was everyone going to go to sleep at the same time? Leaving Ophiel as the only one awake?

Jane broke Erick’s cycle of thoughts as she asked her father, “So you’re going to make a car?”

“Not much of one. But some parts? Sure.” Erick glanced to his yurt, saying, “The turn radius on these things sucks pretty hard; it could use an improvement.”

Nirzir chimed in, “They have to have that axle compensator that you showed in your car diagram; the one that allows easy turning. We have those in the cow carts all over Eralis. I think we have solid axle stabilization designs, too.”

“I’m pretty sure they only asked for this because they wanted some easy contact, and this was what came up.” Erick shrugged. “Or maybe they do have actual problems with size? Maybe cart-sized solutions don’t work for yurts.”

Jane said, “Maybe it’s a problem of orthodoxy. All of the carts in Songli used [Force Platform] to make themselves lighter and less bouncy, and that solution doesn’t work for grass travelers.”

Nirzir got an unsure look as she asked, “Could Teer be asking you for this ‘car’ because of the Wasteland Kingdoms?”

“Probably.” Erick said, “All world powers have connections with each other, though, but also: Koori and Niyazo looked particularly interested in the designs of a car. If anything, then the elders might have asked for this because they knew the value of such a thing to Clan Pale Cow and others of their kind. Tonight wasn’t just them trying to use me, but they were also trying to use everyone else at that table. They tried to use you, too, Nirzir.”

“… Yeah. People have been trying to do that a lot.” Nirzir said, “It was one of the reasons I had to get out of Songli for a little while.”

Erick said, “Perhaps ‘use’ was the wrong term. To me, ‘using’ and ‘working with’ seem rather interchangeable when it comes to working with governmental bodies. Those elders were certainly trying to work with everyone they could.”

Nirzir’s lips scrunched as she hummed a bit, then nodded.

Erick asked, “What do you think, Teressa? Poi? About the cars?”

“Carts and yurts don’t work well in the Forest, so we made do with lots of assistance from [Force Platform] and [Gravity Ward]s to get our carts through the deeper parts. We never had cows, though; we did it all by hand or spell. Cows are just tasty morsels when they’re inside the Forest.” Teressa said, “Personally, I think cars are trinkets and nothing more than novelties. So it doesn’t matter if you make them for these grass travelers. The more complicated they are, though, the easier they break down; like Elder Teer said.”

Poi said, “In the Underworld, you don’t need much more than a giant barge to get large loads moving, because once the load gets large enough, everything floats down there.”

Jane startled, then she smiled. “Let’s hope we don’t see any spider clowns when we get down there.”

Poi startled too, as he looked at Jane. He went a bit paler blue. Jane startled all over again.

Erick asked, “What’s this about? What’s going on there.”

Jane frowned while staring at Poi. “I think there are clown spiders in the Underworld?”

“There are.” Poi said, “They’re not called that. But the spider Jane is thinking of does exist— Not in that exact way. But you’ve already seen them. They’re ballooning spiders.”

“Oh!” Jane laughed, “Ha! Those aren’t that bad. Oh hey! Maybe I’ll get to eat one of them this time— Why are you shivering, Poi? They’re not that bad?”

Poi said, “Ballooning spiders are everywhere down there, [Cleanse] doesn’t always work on their venom, and though their hive mind hordes aren’t in the millions, they are still hive mind hordes. The hives are just smaller. Thirty to a hundred, usually.”

“At least they’re not dimensional spiders,” Jane said.

“Now that sounds like a story I want to hear.” Teressa asked, “But since it’s already almost midnight: Do we want to stay up tonight, or sleep in smaller shifts? Are we on high alert?”

Erick said, “There is some merit to staying awake for at least another hour to make sure nothing is coming this way. Then we can do sleeping shifts. You all can sleep while I drive the cart tomorrow, too.”

“Excellent.” Teressa said, “Then let’s hear your dimensional spider story, Jane. A full story, too! You heard me tell some, and now it’s your turn.”

Jane turned concerned. “Ah. I’ve never told this one, actually. I did write it down for the Headmaster, I think… Yeah. I can tell it. Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Sounds fine to me!” Teressa said, “Ah. Wait. I need to refill my mug. Anyone else want another beer?” She went to the cooler.

No one had drunk much of anything tonight, but there had been some drinking.

Erick decided to continue drinking. He gestured to his mug, saying, “Fill me up, too.”

“I’ll take a little,” Poi said.

“Half for me, too,” Jane said.

“I’m good with tea,” Nirzir said.

As Teressa filled up cups all around the yurt, she told Jane, “Make some pictures, too, otherwise it won’t be scary enough.” She crashed into her chair, eager for the show, saying, “You got [Illusionshape], yeah?”

“I can do that.” Jane smiled wide, getting into it more and more with every passing second. “I’ll make it good and scary.”

“Now that’s what I wanna hear!” Teressa said, smiling.

Poi frowned, though.

Nirzir breathed out heavily as she crawled into her bed and under the covers, whispering, “I don’t know if I like this idea.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad—” And then Erick saw his daughter’s face, and knew that it would be that bad. “Oh… Uh. Jane. There’s no need to go overboard, right?”

Jane’s wicked smile seemed to expand past her face as she lifted her hands and began Shaping images in the center of the yurt. [Greater Lightwalk] and [Greater Shadowalk] joined together to form an illusion, transporting the five of them to the center of a main street that would not look out of place in any small city in the northern United States.

And Erick’s memory was tickling.

He didn’t know this one… But he thought he did? Did he?

Jane’s voice was a gentle knife in the dark, “Our story begins in a small town named Derry, located in the middle of rural America. Everyone knows everyone else, and yet the city holds a dark secret in the sewers, known only to the kids…”

Erick frowned as the rains started and the edges of the street turned into minor rivers. A little boy placed a small folded-paper boat onto the rushing water, to watch the boat float down the way, to a storm drain where a gloved hand snatched the boat and dragged it deep into the dark.

Eyes appeared in the dark of the sewer and Erick suddenly knew this story.

He spoke up, saying, “Don’t you dare shift to a spider form to make this more realistic, Jane! I’ll blip you away! I’m not kidding!”

Jane cackled, and the serrated mouth in the sewers cackled with her.

“Oh bright gods,” Nirzir mumbled.

– – – –

Teressa had some comments here and there, which helped to ease the mild terrors inside Erick’s head.

“What the FUCK is wrong with that guy’s face!”

“Jane. You cannot kill a kid. You just can’t. This story cannot be about killing kids.”

“Wait a second. This thing eats fears? And you kill it by not having fears for it to eat? That’s so stupid. A mental mage would tear it to pieces.”

At that last one, Jane dropped the illusions, and said, “Okay. Look. This monster is the equivalent of a mental monster in a world without any defenses against it, at all. Also, I might have given up too much information in that last part; you’re not supposed to actually know that weakness yet. I’m working off years-old memories here.”

“Okay okay. Fair.” Teressa said, “I’ll stop.”

Poi said, “Just so you all know: The Shades have tried to make this kind of pure mental monster before. It didn’t work out well. I think they were called Hope Eaters and absolutely everything preyed upon them.”

“Guys. Stop criticizing the monster.” Jane softly added, “And my story telling.”

Nirzir offered, “If it makes you happier: I’m perfectly terrified.”

“Thank you!” Jane said, “The rest of you all are just desensitized.”

“Yup.” “I’m getting there.” “I agree with that statement.”

– – – –

“It ends with them bullying the monster to death!? No twist?” Teressa said, “What the fuck!” She rapidly added, “Otherwise: Enjoyable. Good job.”

Jane glared a little.

“Like I said,” Poi said, “Everything kills these types of monsters.”

Erick said, “I didn’t need to sleep anyway. I’ll take first shift.”

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“I’m not sleeping yet, either.” Nirzir said.

“Then I’m tucking in! See you on second. Good night,” Teressa said, as she laid down in bed and shut her eyes. She was out cold within minutes.

Everyone else took a while to calm down, though Poi was a second place finisher in the ‘sleep as fast as you can’ game. Poi probably cheated by casting [Sleep] on himself.

– – – –

The day dawned.

Nothing had happened that night. Which was great! Soon enough, the yurts and cows of Clan Pale Cow were moving right along, toward the north, toward Ooloraptoor. Today was the final day of travel; they should arrive at their designated spot by early evening.

Breakfast was served from the cooking yurt, as usual, but it was breakfast-on-the-go for a lot of people, including Erick. Jane and Nirzir had to rush across the grasses to get some bowls of congee, but they brought back enough for everyone.

While Erick enjoyed the breakfast made by the cooks of Pale Cow, while sitting in his captain’s chair, he got to work with the Elders of Ooloraptoor, to suss out face stealers among their clans. By noon, he had found four hundred and thirty five impostors, while another five hundred to seven hundred people had simply vanished during the search. No one was quite sure of those final numbers, because those numbers were gathered from hundreds of clans, all over the grasslands. And so, began a more methodical type of search.

The vanished people left behind a lot of family and friends. The Sin Seekers questioned those left-behinds about the whereabouts of the suspiciously vanished, but all those people had to say about the vanished was about how their brothers or their sisters or their parents or children were ‘just out for the day’, and ‘they didn’t know we were counter-Hunting! Or else they would have been here!’ According to what Erick was seeing, and what the Sin Seekers corroborated, the left-behinds were innocent of wrongdoing. The missing people, however, were suspect.

Erick did manage to find some of the vanished people, though.

Some people were out and about, doing everything from stealing from others, to having secret trysts, to hunting monsters in the Tribulations for fun, profit, and/or levels. Those people were not a problem. It was the other people who were the problem. Some were face stealers, for sure, hiding out amid their trophies of past kills, or in the very act of eating the heart and brain of another, hoping to escape Erick’s search. Twice, he even found his targets amid the cows, looking like cows themselves. He would never forget the sight of a cow realizing that they had been found out, and that there was no escape.

But other than that…

Nothing too exciting happened in the morning, or all through lunch, except more Blessing of people in the mountains. Erick hadn’t stopped doing that at all, except for the brief hours of sleep he caught before dawn. Now that it was past noon, though, and the counter-Hunting was done for the day because the Sin Seekers of Ooloraptoor needed a break and to reorganize…

Erick set a sign onto the blessing dais telling people that he would be back in a few hours, and then he took a nap.

Nothing happened while he slept.

When he woke up, he found that the yurt had trundled along without interruption.

Everyone was working on something of their own, which was better than them being under siege, for sure. Jane was working on some magic creation; but it was only gridwork at the moment. Teressa was experimenting with [Future Sight], and her greyed-over eyes showed that she was not home right now. Poi was talking to people through [Telepathy], but other than that, he was on active alert. Erick cast his gaze back to the mountain—

He had left a hole in the [Undertow Star]’s area of effect, specifically so that the people who showed up for a Blessing could have a place to stay where they could still use their magic. When Erick had last seen that place, that area had held four utilitarian buildings. Now, those buildings were gone. Now, there was just a wardlight statue to Koyabez, reaching down from the clouds, lifting up a mass of eyes and scales and Darkness back into the light. It was a lightsculpture done by a true artisan.

Erick ignored the sculpture for now, though it was very hard to ignore, and he focused, instead, on the Teleport Square-like area in front of the statue. People blipped onto the mountain, to stand under the wardlight sculpture, to then walk a path across the mountainside, to end up at the blessing dais.

There was a collection of people waiting for Erick to return. Some were seated on the ground. Some stood, their arms crossed. Some wore armor while others wore clean robes. They were ready to be changed. They were ready to move on.

The wardlight sculpture was not the only change to take place on that mountain.

Beyond that dais, a kilometer away from the [Undertow Star]’s effect, was the start of a city.

There were three, hundred-room apartment buildings of utilitarian make that were little more than organized stone boxes with beds. There were no doors. The first ‘hotel’ was full-up of people. Almost all of those people were in various stages of catatonia or wailing or normal-ish weeping. Only one of the buildings was full. The other two were empty, still. Erick had Blessed more than 500 people so far, so some of them had moved on already. Some were not capable of moving on, just yet.

And there was Daizing and Roia, helping two different groups of people to settle in to their new life, both of them giving small, animated talks about redemption and new possibilities. It was not only Daizing and Roia, but other Knives of the Night were also organizing the people Erick had Blessed. They were becoming a force of their own. Some of the recently Blessed were even [Grow]ing fields of food down in the valley where a thin river ran through the rocky land.

… Whatever!

Ophiel stepped out of the light, onto the dais, as Erick took the ‘be back later’ sign and blipped it away. Thirty four people watched as he did this, each of them gazing at Ophiel with varying levels of hope and rage and desperation in their eyes.