163, 2/2

To the right, on the blue side, stood Niyazo and a few leaders of Pale Cow. Speaker Yorila was there, too, oddly enough, but perhaps even odder than that, was the presence of Koori. Yorila’s presence signified that Pale Cow was willing to submit a caster to the probable battle; they were willing to break their traditional orthodoxy. Erick shouldn’t have been too surprised by that, he supposed, since he participated in yesterday’s debate, and Blue Sky was, of course, going to field a caster or three. The rules of debate were already agreed upon before anyone stepped up to the stage, and these debates were strictly of the ‘standard’ variety.

But Koori being there meant that she would be participating in the battle, and that battle would include magic… And Koori had a personal hatred of magic.

She was breaking her own morality to be there on that stage.

Koori’s presence held much of Erick’s attention, and he was not the only one to take heavy note of her. To the left, on the orange side of the stage, the people of Blue Sky saw Koori and were nervous. All Erick truly knew was that Koori had some sort of [Cleansing Domain], but these people knew a lot more than that; they knew her actual capabilities.

A bit further to the left, outside of the debating area, stood two other groups of people with clear connections to Blue Sky. Linxel from Green Grass was the most noticeable, at well over two decimeters taller than the next tallest person and with spiraling horns beyond that. Some people with some brown dogs stood next to Green Grass and Blue Sky. They had to be from Clan Brown Dog, but Erick didn’t know much about them. Brown Dog only had three people in attendance, though, each with their own brown dog at their side. That full clan had yet to show up in Ooloraptoor, but they should all be here in the next day or so.

Elder Teer stood in front of the crowd, bringing the debate to order. She spoke a shortened version of her speech from yesterday, laying a foundation that would hopefully foster peaceful discussion of Integration.

And then the first speakers took their places by the podiums.

The actual debate started off normal enough. One of the leaders of Pale Cow got up on stage and spoke of how the world was changing, and how they needed to band together, or else outside forces would corrupt them from multiple directions at the same time. They spoke of hope; that the grass travelers could keep their nomadic ways of life, exactly how the orcols managed to keep their nomadic ways of life, even after the establishment of Treehome. Just like how had been proven before, a civilization could be organized alongside a strong center without infringing on the individuality of separate clans.

And then a guy from Blue Sky took the stage and spoke of how the orcols were some of the worst people to take examples from, for they had failed to keep the Forest of Glaquin habitable. If the orcols were forest-cullers like Blue Sky, or like Green Grass, then maybe they wouldn’t have needed an archmage’s help to drive back the shadows in the Deep Green.

Teressa scoffed. “Now that’s just insulting.” She flicked a hand toward the screen, scowling deeply. “Assholes over here never grew up with forests that fight back and they think they could do better than us!”

Erick glanced backward for a moment. Teressa was truly angry.

He turned back to the screen.

The speaker for Blue Sky spoke of how Integration would drive people away from doing their sacred duty of burning all trees to the ground. Within twenty years of integration, forests would return to the grasslands, and with them would come the more dangerous monsters, and with that danger, would come death, and an expansion of the forest into a true Forest.

Pale Cow countered how, with a centralized system, they could raise forest cullers up to positions of power to keep the land clear of forests. Then they started offering solid organization solutions to how such an undertaking would be achieved. They spoke of offices and bureaucracy, and they also spoke of quick response times to danger that didn’t involve a nobility overseeing everything.

Blue Sky’s response was instant, “There would always be a nobility in these sorts of situations. There would always be a top, and a bottom, with a gulf between the two based on the size of the society. If all the wealth in a community is just ten gold, the most anyone could ever lord their money over another is with that ten gold, and that ten gold would soon become worthless in trade. But you’re talking about making a community with ever-increasing wealth; with a nobility that has no limits. Maybe the disparity you create won’t be of gold, but there will be a disparity, and that means an eventual nobility. There is no way around this.”

The speaker of Pale Cow was expecting this sort of response. So they launched right into the idea of transferable power, speaking of many things which Erick had spoken of last night, to Niyazo and Koori. They spoke of how the problems with transferable power only occurred when communities could not respect the institution, but the grass travelers had been having debates like this for a long time; they could do tradition, and they could even make new ones. Traditions that could stand the test of time. Traditions where nobility was not allowed footholds, for that sort of power would always be split among the people, instead.

Erick sighed, “Oh gods.”

Jane couldn’t hold it in any longer. She laughed, then said, “Serves you right! Telling them about this stuff.”

“It’s a nice idea, I suppose; transferable power.” Nirzir said, “Arcanaeums do it all the time the world over. Every commoner corporation or business does it… But to apply this idea to government? I mean. Commoner businesses exist because the nobility looks out for them, while arcanaeums exist because of the Headmaster.”

Teressa said, “I was gonna say that Treehome has an elected government, but the Arbors aren’t elected. So… Yeah.”

“There are problems with the idea of transferable power,” Erick said. “Most of them are solvable.” A bit sarcastically, he added, “You just need some immortal, incorruptible powerhouses which will let the people below them do their own things.”

“Easy to solve,” Jane said, copying her father’s sarcasm.

“… You both say it like the answer isn’t obvious.” Teressa said, “They just gotta make some arbors and get over their stupid aversion to the Forest.”

Poi kept his opinion to himself.

“Clan Void Song takes in lots of people and raises them all to power.” Nirzir said, “These people could do that, too.” She paused, then said, “We don’t meddle overmuch in the lives of people below us.”

“You two don’t get it.” Jane said, “These people don’t want anyone at the top, for they know that whoever is at the top likely won’t be them, or their children.”

Poi nodded.

Teressa and Nirzir fell silent.

The debates continued, with Blue Sky tearing down Pale Cow’s ideas, and Pale Cow continually offering solutions to all of Blue Sky’s concerns.

While all that happened, Erick killed monsters according to applications dropped off by various petitioners and Blessed people in the mountains. Most of his attention was on the debates, though.

After a while, after a few choice words by Clan Blue Sky, Erick’s attention went solely toward the debates, because something tickled his mind as he was watching; he was seeing something more than what most other people saw. Nearly an hour had passed with neither side losing a single speaker, for the elders had yet to vote either side off, and the audience was large, and listening. This was slightly abnormal; someone should have been voted off by now. And yet, the first two speakers were still up there.

Not too surprising, in retrospect, for aside from the first bit of banter, not a single old argument had been trod out to be judged. Everything the two speakers discussed was new, so of course the elders hadn’t voted anyone off.

And Erick had seen something in the way that Blue Sky spoke, and the way that Pale Cow answered, something he wasn’t quite sure he had truly seen. But…

Oh.

The Blue Sky speaker ended their turn, setting up the pins, “Every word out of your mouth is nothing more than wishful thinking. It’s all theory. It’s all imaginative lies; little more than a warm wind on the freezing cold tundra that is reality.”

And Pale Cow knocked them down, “But we do have proof that these ideas of transferable power work. We have spoken to Archmage Flatt about his world, where many of these ideas are present, and…”

The guy continued to speak, but Erick had seen enough.

Erick told his people, “So nothing is happening, but I have something to say. I’m putting up a Privacy for a moment.” And then he did. The world beyond the yurt remained visible, but they were cut off from all of it. He turned to his people, and to Nirzir. Poi nodded a little; knowing what was happening, but the other three were worried. Erick tried to put their worries to rest, “Nothing bad has happened, but I don’t want these words to be repeated outside of this space.” He moved right along, “I don’t know how it happened, or what happened, exactly, but it appears that Pale Cow and Blue Sky wanted to work together, and they’re doing it as covertly as they can. There’s a lot of true animosity between both sides, so all of that which you see up there has been real, and maybe the speakers after these first two will bring actual anger to the discussion, but Pale Cow and Blue Sky are working together.” Erick said, “We are not going to interfere in whatever they’re doing, and we’re not going to let anyone know that we know, either.”

Teressa was quick on the uptake, and on the ramifications. “So does that mean we’re moving on?”

“Not today, but sooner than I thought we would.” Erick said, “This also means we might not have to worry about a dragon attack from Ordoonarati. Honestly… I do not like what he did to Green Grass, or him sending the Mirage Dragon to try and assassinate me, and there might be some soul mutilation happening out there right now, but while I will check up on that, I’m not willing to start a war with a dragon that doesn’t want to fight.”

Teressa and Poi instantly understood; both of them relaxed in that moment. Jane gradually understood, too, but she didn’t like his decision. Nirzir was… disappointed. Yup; disappointed.

The princess of Void Song said, “But you killed all the Shades. I’ve seen what you can do. A dragon shouldn’t pose any threat?” She added, “A dragon that has probably soul mutilated the people on that stage.”

Poi said, “We can check for soul mutilation, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to the larger powers, and dragons qualify.”

“But?” Nirzir’s frown deepened.

“It’s too many unknowns.” Teressa said, “You never fight an unknown if you don’t have to, and we have no idea where the dragon is, or what they can do.”

“But…” Nirzir just shook her head a little.

Jane looked at her father, saying, “I don’t like this decision either. The dragon tried to get at you twice, and he killed people and mutilated their souls in order to do that. This dragon is not someone you should leave at your back.”

Poi said, “I would prefer not to be near a dragon fight if it is not necessary, and it might not actually be necessary in this case. We can check for soul mutilations on the people out there.”

Teressa asked, “You could try to send a message to the dragon, boss? To see if you’re actually on the same side now?”

“We are not on the same side.” Erick said, “But I don’t…” He felt tired. He looked away. “I could reach out, perhaps. See if he will take back his promise to go to war if he loses these debates. See if he’s purposely losing, now, which he seems to be.” He added, “I just wanted to let you all know what I see, to let you know why I’ll be making some of the decisions I’ll be making in the near future, before I make them. Let’s not talk about this outside of a Privacy, or [Telepathy].”

A round of nods followed Erick’s words. Nirzir was deeply unhappy, but she hid that away as best she could. Jane, though, resigned herself to acceptance.

Erick told the young girl, “We can talk later about this, okay?”

Nirzir sat a bit straighter. She nodded.

Erick dispersed the Privacy, and recast the [True Viewing Screen].

They watched the debate for a while longer, but almost all of the tension was gone. A lot of the words that passed between the two first speakers, who were still talking, were not exactly choreographed, but they were definitely organized beforehand. Some of the elders were obviously in on the deception, too, though not many of them; more than enough to ensure that neither speaker could be voted off until they were done speaking. Teer was clearly a part of the choreography.

An hour and a half into the ‘debate’, something finally broke in the equilibrium between orange and blue, and Pale Cow got voted off, first. Blue Sky took a shot at the second trained speaker from Pale Cow, and then flubbed an argument on purpose to get voted off.

Nirzir’s voice was small, as she said, “It’s rather obvious when you look for it, isn’t it.”

“Yeah; it is.” Jane turned to her father, and said, “You know, dad. It turns out I really miss television. And snacks. I’m getting more snacks.” She asked everyone, “Anyone want some?”

Everyone wanted more snacks.

Jane smiled at her father, saying, “You should invent soda.”

Erick smiled. “I could, couldn’t I. Oh! I’ll make something lemony. I always liked that stuff.”

“A lemon and lime combination flavor, perhaps? Maybe seven flavors, together? Not unlike the myriad citrus?” Jane smirked as she asked, “What will you call it?”

Erick announced, “Archmage Flatt’s Fizzy Citrus Surprise!”

Jane’s smile vanished, then it came back as she laughed.

“There will be no copyright infringement on my watch,” Erick said, most seriously.

Nirzir was lost. She asked Teressa, “What’s a copyright?”

“Some earth-thing, for sure,” Teressa said.

– – – –

It started off as a lark, but Erick could make soda if he wanted, couldn’t he? So while he watched the debates, and snacked on sweet rice and marshmallow treats, he did a bit of magic on the side. [Condense Carbon] and [Condense Oxygen] were not enough, though; Erick needed to create usable CO2, which meant a solid that could be easily transported, or contained, and not a gas. To make that final leap, Erick included another spell that he had gotten from a different member of the mage trio, back in Spur.

Eduard had invented that one, right alongside his sister Maia’s [Incandescent].

And since Erick was creating a new spell anyway, and for some symmetry, Erick channeled [Frozen Mist] and Aurify through an Ophiel hanging out high in the sky. Ice instantly formed on beating wings, then shed away like so much scattered frost. The air turned to winter, as a cold mist billowed away from Ophiel.

And Ophiel kinda liked it. He ducked and weaved into the air, trailing a chill all around him, scattering ice with every beat of his wings, and with every note of his violin song.

Erick let that aura lapse. It was dry ice making time! He combined the original [Frozen Mist] with—

He stopped.

Why not use [Mysticalshape] to make it work better? Well. Yeah. That was one of the Big Things he wanted to try using that spell for, wasn’t it; to make some Particle Magic without extraneous contaminants, like what happened when he used [Crystallize Diamond].

Erick smiled. Okay. Well. He had to make this one himself; he couldn’t make this spell through Ophiel as he sat there, on the porch of his yurt. So he excused himself from the screening area, saying, “I’m going to make a spell. Shouldn’t take too long.”

Nirzir instantly, and excitedly asked, “What spell! Can I watch?”

Jane just smiled as she watched Erick go.

“Of course.” Erick stepped off of the yurt and walked a bit away, saying, “It’ll be a spell that makes the material which can then be used to make carbonated drinks.”

“What’s ‘carbonated’?” Nirzir asked. “Something to do with making something have more carbon?”

“Exactly. The formula for this molecule is one carbon and two oxygen. I’m adding in [Mysticalshape] and [Frozen Mist] to see if I can make the spell operate without producing byproducts, and to make a solid material that can be transported later, in case I want to make a product with this spell at another time.”

Nirzir nodded, waiting for the magic. She asked no more questions.

Erick held a hand forward and channeled mana through his various spells. The Particle spells sounded of static, but [Mysticalshape] sounded like a possibility sliding into place, while [Frozen Mist] was the sound of a frozen morning, crackling with ice— Huh. That spell had gained some sound to it, too. Before, it was just another static sound.

Anyway.

Erick tuned the song a few different ways, trying to find the vibrations that turned cold possibility into a fizzy, harmless sensation. He didn’t find the correct combination right away, but knowing that CO2 condensed into a solid well below 0 degrees, he went for a deeper cast of [Frozen Mist], trying to make it cold enough for—

Yup!

That did it. That was the proper sound of a cold soda.

Smiling, Erick cast, twisting magics together, targeting the space above the corner of a stone platform.

Flowing streamers of misty white cold swirled out of the manasphere, condensing into a small teaspoon-sized pile that grew larger as moments piled up; like the falling of snow onto a specific part of the world. The yield was small, and the production was slow, but CO2 was precipitating out of the air, well enough.

Ah! To have this spell back on Earth— Actually. Having [Grow] would probably be a better solution to climate change than carbon sequestration. Erick always thought that was just pushing the problem forward, onto the next generation.

Anyway.

Erick threw a [Cleanse] on the pile, bursting white light across the space to check to see if there were any toxic byproducts. No thick air came up from the pile, though it was a bit hard to see through the cold, white swirls flowing through the space.

He’d throw another [Cleanse] over the whole thing once it was done.

A blue box appeared well before the crystallization was complete.

The name was a bit odd and the description was rather purposefully vague, but the spell was a success, though the product was slower forming than Erick had expected.

Nirzir asked, “Was that a success?”

“Yes. But I think I can adjust the yield by changing the local environment, as with any Particle Spell.”

Erick grabbed some nearby grasses with an Ophiel, brought those grasses into the dry ice spell, and had Ophiel [Incandescent Aura] the grass into particulate. Almost instantly, Erick knew he had harmed his new spell with the heat, for the whole freezing sphere of magic suddenly shrunk; probably due to the heating spell, which was rather perfectly aligned against the cold spell. Particle spells worked well against each other, after all. The grass still went up in flames, though, producing ash which was swept up by the white streamers of the cold spell, into the interior, where the yield of dry ice suddenly doubled, then tripled, like snow knocked down onto the ground.

Erick decided to let the spell run its course without any more interference, for it was working well enough on its own. The yield was growing faster than diamonds grew, so this was fine.

He said, “The next version of this spell is the aura, but that can come later.”

Nirzir asked, “What can you do with the snow, though? Er. It’s not snow, is it.”

Erick smiled. Nirzir was rather smart. And the pile of CO2 snow was about two handfuls large; this was more than enough to show her what dry ice could do. Erick canceled the rest of the spell then cast a [Cleanse] over the space. White streamers vanished back into the manasphere and thick air flexed, yet removed none of the particulate from the ground.

Success! Including [Mysticalshape] had worked wonders.

“You put it in a drink and you drink it!” Jane said, coming forward with a pitcher of lemon water that she had been working on while Erick made his spell. She handed the container off to her father. “It’s mostly sugar and the juice of half a lemon. It should function, but the recipe needs obvious work.”

With a sweep of hard light, Erick compacted most of the dry ice into a small block of solid white, about half the size of his fist, while he also took the pitcher from Jane. The ice went into the container, and instantly started bubbling. Nirzir craned her neck, eyeing the smoke pouring off of the bubbling lemonade.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“And that’s it!” Erick said. “All you have to do is let the dry ice fully dissolve into the drink, and that’s all it takes to make soda water.” He handed the container back to Jane, adding, “You should lightly close off the lid, though, to ensure the carbonation takes.”

Jane eagerly took the pitcher, giving a laugh as she wrapped it in shadows, saying, “You could have done this a year ago, dad.”

“A year ago, the Queen Daydropper had killed most of Odaali using what I assume is a variation of this spellwork, and [Grow].”

Jane winced. “… Ah. Yeah.”

Nirzir’s eyes shot wide. “It’s dead air!?”

“That’s what most people would call it, yes,” Erick said. “But it’s no more dangerous than any other magic out there.”

Nirzir instantly regained control of herself. “I— Yes. Of course. I was simply surprised. Pardon my temporary naivety. Would you mind if I cast a [Cleanse] upon the… bubbling water? To. Uh. To alleviate my own concerns?”

Erick smirked. “Go ahead.”

Nirzir did so. The white smoke coming out of the pitcher was unaffected. “… I see you are correct.”

“We’ll wait until it finishes bubbling, then we can try some,” Erick said. “Don’t ever drink dry ice. That might kill you.”

Nirzir stood straight. “Ah.”

Jane said, “Oh! It won’t kill you.”

“It could seriously hurt you, Jane,” Erick said. “… Though, with Health… I don’t know.”

Nirzir still looked unsure, but Jane was wholly ready for a soda. Soon enough, they returned to watching the debates, and this time they had another beverage option. Jane sipped her lemon soda, smiling gently as she watched Teressa sputter her drink to the side, spitting out the ‘nasty’ stuff that ‘stung’. Jane teased Teressa mercilessly over that, but Erick just smiled as he sipped his own drink. And yeah… It did sting a bit more than Erick remembered. Teressa declared all of the people of Earth ‘Obvious sadists’, which earned a large laugh from both Erick and Jane.

Poi emphatically declared that soda did not live up to the hype, but he drank it anyway.

The five of them continued to watch the debates, but none of what was said would likely impact any of them, except for maybe Nirzir.

… The debates were important. The world was changing, and the grass travelers were beset on all sides and from within, by pressures that would sweep over them if they did not solidify in the face of those pressures. But the debates weren’t important to Erick, except that he needed to make allies everywhere he went. Allies were important.

For someone, someday, would discover that he was a Wizard. And the Shades still had a heavy interest in him. And he had shadelings to watch over. And a Crystal Forest to clean up of crystal mimics. And there was still a Converter Angel out there, though Erick hadn’t seen any of the Angel’s soul modifications in a long while.

Erick had irrevocably changed the world in so many different ways, and he had a responsibility to see that the changes he caused were good ones, and that people weren’t coming after him for what he had done.

But the debates here weren’t that important for Erick, for he might be done with the grass travelers, especially if Ordoonarati had truly abandoned his need to assassinate Erick. Though what, exactly, had he done to stop the dragon from choosing violence? Could have been anything, really.

A lot happened past the edges of Erick’s sight.

– – – –

In a distant yurt, far away from Ooloraptoor, a man warmed himself by the firepit in the center of his home, enjoying the flames in the deepening night, though the light could have been brighter, and the warmth stronger. He was still cold, but he wanted to save on wood, so he simply grabbed a nearby blanket and layered it over the one already around his shoulders.

And he waited, his eyes locked on the flap of leather that served as a door. He had been waiting for hours. Green shadows swirled behind him; the firelight doing nothing against that ephemeral darkness. Rather than banish the shadows to the corners, the light seemed to deepen them. The cold seemed to deepen, too.