164, 1/2

Erick felt warm all over, luxuriating in the afterglow as he lay upon a conjured mattress, staring at the night sky overhead. Countless stars twinkled up above, while down here, sweat dried on naked skin, but only on his. He was alone; Linxel had already left. Both of them had a good time. A good three and a half times, actually. Could have been more, but eventually, words and feelings had become more important than physical need.

So after that final aborted round, they spoke about nothing in particular for the next hour.

Eventually, words and feelings revealed a deep incompatibility.

Linxel wanted a partner, and he wasn’t going to do a [Teleport] relationship ever again; he had done that too many times before. It seemed that even on Veird, where genders didn’t really matter for most people of power, that ‘people of power’ was a large qualifier. People of all walks of life married for all sorts of reasons, but ‘love’ was rarely one of them. Children and a stable future won out over love almost all the time, but some people just couldn’t do that.

Linxel had been alone for the last ten years, and he would likely continue to remain alone for the foreseeable future. He had spoken of how he was okay, but Erick could tell he was lying to himself.

Erick didn’t confront that lie; not directly, anyway.

Erick only spoke about how he wasn’t sure where he would end up, or what he would do with his life, but his life was too dangerous for a relationship right now. It had been the easy way to close the door on this fling, and Linxel seemed to be happier after Erick agreed with Linxel’s denial of a possible future between them.

But before that… It… It had been nice.

– – – –

Linxel’s hand rested in Erick’s, their grips tight, as the both of them laid on their backs and stared at the stars. Linxel pointed at a bright red star and named it the ‘Serpent’s Eye’ of the constellation ‘Red Snake’; the first star in a series of ten that formed a string of stars ten long, with a tail eventually pointed directly at the ‘North Star’.

For Veird had a North Star, too, because of course it did, because Veird was a globe like any other planet. It was a bit dimmer than Earth’s North Star, though, and Linxel seemed to find this funny, as he went on with his explanation.

“Some people call the North Star the ‘Other Eye’, because—” Linxel pointed between the Red Snake constellation and the North Star, toward a near-perfect square of bright stars, saying, “That is called the ‘Sumtir’s Sawblade Shield’, and the story goes that the Shield cut out the Snake’s eye in the Shield’s battle to chase the Snake away from the top of the world. My great grandmother had a different tradition about the Red Snake constellation, though. She said that every star beyond the first three were shed skins, and that the North Star was the first shed skin, ripped off by the ‘Adventuring Team’, which is what she called the Shield.” Linxel smiled, for he couldn’t seem to do anything else but grin, as he said, “She was from Archipelago Nergal, so there was a different tradition there.”

Erick listened and gazed at the sky and loved every moment of it.

Erick wasn’t fully present in the moment, though. A lot of his attention was spent watching out for magical effects all around them, all the time.

They had used a lot of magic in the act, and Erick learned all sorts of interesting things that he didn’t know before, but which he had guessed at long before tonight.

As Linxel spoke, Erick noted that the man’s horns had shrunk, allowing Linxel to lay back on the ground without poking his horns into the mattress Erick had conjured. Linxel said that his horns shifting size was a variation of [Alter Size] magic that he had already displayed, much to both Erick’s horror and delight. Linxel’s Class was Giant Warrior, after all, and he could grow to twice or three times his height when he wanted, but [Alter Size] was practically laced into Linxel’s aura, so after years of use, all of him had eventually just grown bigger. He could still control it, though, but you’d never guess he used to be barely 18 decimeters tall.

Other parts of Erick only noticed Linxel’s eyes, and his muscles, and all the rest of him. How he breathed, and how he spoke. Linxel, in turn, couldn’t keep his eyes off of Erick when Erick spoke of stars, planets, and Earth and whatever. They spoke a little about the new politics of the grasslands, and of threats to the people here, and elsewhere, but mostly they smiled at each other’s genuine words, and feelings.

– – – –

But Linxel and Erick were not meant to be.

Linxel wanted something long term, and nearby. While Erick was not willing to live a life on the grasslands, for he had way too many responsibilities back home, in Spur.

And so, Linxel had taken his leave, first.

And now Erick laid on the conjured mattress, staring up at the sky, watching the stars slowly crawl across the heavens, enjoying and lamenting the moment. A Privacy shielded most of him from the outside world, so he was still in contact with everyone, if he needed to be, but he did not need to be; not right now. As soon as he moved on from this shielded space then… Then it would be time to move on; away from the grasslands, to the next spot of this Worldly Path.

He’d do one more thing before he left, though.

Maybe two more things.

… But for now, he stared at the stars above. There was no danger in being found by anyone, for Erick had moved both he and Linxel through multiple [Sealed Privacy Ward]s, leaving behind a trail of Privacy magics… like the shedding of a snake’s skin, running from an imaginary adventuring team.

Erick smiled as he stared at the sky. This was the best he had felt in…

In over a year.

Huh.

Well wasn’t that fucking sad.

…

Erick got up and turned off the [Heating Ward] that kept the space nice and warm. A chill wind blew across the plains, drying off the sweat still on his skin. He gave himself another [Cleanse] then started putting his clothes back on. Another switch of intent burst every Privacy he had cast upon the grasslands, and Erick stood revealed upon the plains.

For another moment, he gazed at the stars. Then he stared at the dark land all around. He breathed. He sighed.

And then he lightstepped back to his yurt.

– – – –

As dawn broke across the world, bringing light to the darkness, Erick cast a [Small Spark] onto a block of iron and set that block of iron into its holder, on top of the motor. The rotor instantly began to spin, and spin, without breaking. The commutators sparked a little, for the brushes were still made of copper like all the rest of the electrical parts. Erick still hadn’t made a graphite block system, so the commutator or the brushes would eventually wear down due to the friction of the brushes, but someone else could solve that problem. He had made an engine that was a good, near-finished product, and he hadn’t used [Duplicate] to do it. The windings were even sealed with a pretty decent varnish, and with [Particle Vacuum] on top of that; those windings wouldn’t be coming apart like the previous iterations.

… Something might break after a full day of use, though.

There was lots of room for improvement.

Erick still needed to find a replacement for Jane’s silk. And he needed to make a brushless DC motor… Which required transistors. Or he could make an AC motor!… Which required DC to AC conversion. He could also work on transformers, which would be necessary to make [Battery] a usable spell for something other than combining with other spells.

There was a lot of road left on that path, but Erick would walk it some other day.

Erick let the motor run; this was a duration test, now. So far, the motor seemed to be passing.

He turned to his other project.

The frame of a car sat on stone blocks, atop a stone platform. Erick had yet to create or install a prototype differential, but he had a few new ideas to try out. For starters: worm gears. When a worm gear was in contact with a spur gear, the worm gear could rotate the spur gear, but a spur gear could not move a worm gear. This was a necessary solution to a problem he didn’t realize he had, until after he had gotten through two prototype differentials.

When one tire was free to turn (like what happened when the wheels got stuck in mud), all power went to that wheel, while the other wheel got nothing. He probably should have seen the slipping problem coming; this was the major hurdle to overcome to make a differential work properly.

So Erick included some worm gears in his differential along with a bunch of things that just seemed right. In less than twenty minutes, he solved the slipping problem.

Erick began sticking pieces together while he explained his process to his [Familiar]s, with Ophiel sitting on one shoulder and Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye floating above on the other. “Now you have these two separated axle halves, and you put the worm gears on them, like this, see? And then you hold them together and you attach these parts we’ve already made. And now, you turn it all to light, and slip on this drive wheel that I forgot to put on earlier, like this— Yes, Ophiel, that was a mistake, and so I fixed it like this, see. And here you have the completed project. This is called a torque sensing differential, and it’s copyrighted on Earth, but we don’t care about that on Veird. And now… We start over because I forgot to put some spur gears on these spur gears, but that’s okay, because…”

An hour later, Jane, smiling, brought him a bowl of congee topped with berry jam. Erick was in the middle of refining his ideas, creating a second differential that wouldn’t break under normal stresses, but he was ready to eat, so he took the bowl.

“Thank you.”

Jane asked, “Sooooo. How are yooooou?”

“I’m good.” Erick looked back toward the differential sitting between his legs. He conjured a little floating platform and sat the bowl of breakfast on top. “Unless something else happens, we might be moving on as soon as I get these last few obligations out of the way.”

Jane instantly frowned. “What? But if we’re moving on, then… Did nothing happen?”

“Nothing permanent.” Erick said, “Which is fine.”

Jane’s frown lessened. “Well. Okay. It’s just that you seemed happier, and… That was nice to see. You’ve been smiling all morning long.”

“Ah. I have?” Erick pulled a face. “Is this better?”

Jane returned an exaggerated frown. “Not really.” She changed the subject, “So we’re leaving today, then?”

“Probably.”

“Then I’m going to wrap up a few things; head to Eralis for a little bit. I’ll be back by noon. I assume we’re not taking any of our stuff with us?”

“I’m not sure what to do with most of it, but yeah. We’re traveling light again.” Erick said, “Want Ophiel to take you to Eralis? Save on mana that way.”

“No.” Jane said, “I think Nirzir would want to move some stuff back to Eralis, too, so I’ll probably go with her. She should be awake soon enough.”

Erick nodded.

Jane walked off.

Erick ate his congee. It was pretty good. Warm and filling. The people here had been rather good to him, considering all the shit he stirred up, and he hoped he had been good to them, in return.

… He decided to make a few more things to hand off to the grass travelers.

And two more ‘inventions’.

– – – –

Elder Uriol, Elder Teer, and Elder Puuroi, stood beside the platform with Erick’s various models, motors, and lightward prototypes, looking over everything he had made. There were a few more people beside that, but they were Smiths and Drivers, and only here to understand how to better implement the ideas presented; they had been introduced to Erick, but he didn’t pay them much mind for they were, almost entirely, terrified of him. Erick tried to be personable, but that just freaked them out even more, so he decided to stay away from them instead.

Koori and Niyazo had also come along to the presentation. Erick had invited them and thus they were obligated, but he suspected that they would like what he was showing off as soon as they understood what it meant. Right now, they had no idea what the spinning motor represented, and they had a lot of shit to do, but Erick did not feel bad about pulling them away from whatever else they had planned.

And so, with everyone gathered, Erick spoke of differentials, how the motor worked, and a few of the basics of electromagnetism. It didn’t take long to get through the first iteration of his explanations of what everything was. What did take longer, was when people finally understood what this stuff represented.

Uriol was excited about the new gear designs, while Teer was only interested in the motor. Puuroi was happy about all of it, and vocally excited about all the new possibilities presented. Koori was rather unimpressed until Erick got to explaining how the motor actually worked, though; until she understood the implications of this ‘new magic’.

Koori’s eyes were wide, her jaw slack, her breathing calm, yet excited.

Erick smiled at that.

As Erick finished speaking of the basics of electromagnetism, Erick let everyone in on the implications, topping off his talk with, “And thus, through [Small Spark], you can build a civilization of electricity, with as little or as much magic as you want, for making a rotor turn is the least of what electricity can do. Behold~” Erick pulled a blanket off of a covered box.

A lightbulb, and a toaster; these were the extra inventions Erick had created this morning.

Both were easy to make, too. [Particle Vacuum] along with some Shaping spells and the metals that he had extracted from some of the iron bars was enough to make a rudimentary light bulb. Krypton or argon gas would have been better for the filling medium, but vacuums were easier to understand and implement, or at least they would be in a year. Luckily, Erick had gotten some tungsten out of his metal bar destruction, so at least the light bulb’s filament was exactly what it should have been.

The toaster was similarly easy, though it was not a proper toaster; this one was more like a cooktop. It was horizontal. Erick made it that way so that people could imagine for themselves the multiple ways to use such a device—

Erick realized that he could make a Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove using electricity and cooktops. That method of cooking specifically used radiant heat to mimic a burning fire, with [Heat Ward]s being disdained for their ‘microwave like’ cooking effects, where the Maillard reaction was hard to achieve. But with an electric stove, one could cook with very high heat, and for a fraction of the cost of a Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove, and a fraction of the mana it took to cook with the actual [Prestidigitation] spell. [Small Spark] was only 5 mana for 10 minutes of work!

—But for this small cooktop here, it was basically a toaster. And for this toaster, all he needed to do was make some curled metal filaments that didn’t burn when exposed to air, they simply heated to red hot. But by that time, he had run out of tungsten, so he had to make do with some other metals. In this case, he used a mix of nickel, chromium, and iron, which he remembered was great for high temperature jobs exactly like this. He wasn’t sure of the actual amounts to use for a proper heat-resistant metal, but he got close enough for a prototype.

The lightbulb would last for a while until it eventually burned out the inside of the bulb. The toaster was going to fail due to melted filaments sooner rather than later. Nothing was perfect, but it was functional, and Erick wasn’t willing to [Duplicate] any parts of anything he did here in order to make it easier on himself, or on those who were yet to come.

Erick tapped a metal bar in front of the lightbulb, saying and casting, “[Small Spark].”

The metal bar crackled, then the lightbulb lit like a brilliant yellow flame.

He moved on to the toaster, saying and casting, “[Small Spark].”

The ‘toaster’ cooktop fired to life; concentric circles of red hot wires radiating heat under a grate. Erick took a piece of bread and placed it on top of the grate. Soon, the bread would turn into one-sided toast.

Koori let out a happy sigh as she saw the cooktop and the light, and she knew exactly what they meant. Niyazo smiled, but not at the experiments; he only had eyes for his happy wife. Happy wife, happy life!

Good for them.

Erick said to everyone there, “All of these are proofs of concept. Basic frameworks to copy and understand in your own ways. Prototypes that work, but barely.

“The gears in the differential and the car need actual Smiths that can make them tough enough for actual, hard use. The lightbulbs need better materials. The toaster needs insulation between the cooking surface and the heating element to prevent someone from accidentally setting a house on fire, or from accidentally electrocuting themselves to death. There are problems everywhere, but I’m not going to solve those problems for you.” Erick said, “I’m giving you the basic tools to create a society with a lot less magic in it, if you want that. Personally, I’m going to try for some sort of incorporation. [Mend], for broken parts; [Cleanse], for dirty parts; [Metalshape] is going to be important; [Alter Friction]; [Control Machine]. The list goes on and on, but the opportunity starts with [Small Spark], and that’s only one point away in the Open Script.” Erick joked, “And I didn’t even invent that one.”

There were a few laughs around the presentation.

Erick continued, “For five mana, you get a spell that lasts 10 minutes, and which has more than enough power to do a lot, if you know how to leverage that power.

“These tools are how you can leverage that power but there are many more tools waiting to be found.” Erick said, “The physics here is complicated, for sure, but it’s a lot easier than enchanting, for all this stuff is based in pure physicality, instead of in Truth. Anyone arranging these physical materials in the same physical configuration will produce the same effects. This is not magic. It is engineering.” Erick smirked, as a thought came to him. “Magineering, if you will.”

Teer was the first to speak, saying, “I did not expect you to come through with a full presentation and a revelation of your secrets like this, but I suppose I should have. Shame on me for not believing what other people had been telling me.”

Uriol was already smiling wide, but he laughed at Teer’s words, and said, “I told you we’d get something good! This is beyond my largest imagination!”

Puuroi said, “We’ll have to find a substitute for the spider silk wrappings. That might be the hardest part.”

The three elders almost started an argument amongst themselves over materials, but Erick spoke up, saying, “You can keep all of this stuff here, and there are notes on electricity in that booklet right there.” Erick gestured to a small black notebook on the nearby table. “I had some crazy ideas on how I was going to explain electricity to everyone, but most of those were ill-formed. If you were listening in on the left hand and right hand rule stuff, then you might be confused about what’s in that book, but hopefully, I explained it all better in there, than I did earlier.”

Teer smirked a little bit. She was perfectly fine with being called out on her spying. Uriol and Puuroi were a bit less fine on being called on, but the two of them caught up to Teer’s nonchalance about everything, soon enough.

Uriol said, “Thanks for the explanations, Erick. I’m sure that’ll answer a lot of our Smiths’ questions.”

“I copied the book and sent it out to a few different people, too, so I hope I answered the larger questions simply, and succinctly. If not, then there are other people learning this stuff alongside you. Seek them out, if you wish.” One copy had gone to Zolique, the Lightning Mage down in Eralis, who had helped Erick with learning [Small Spark], [Insulate], and [Superconductor]. Xue of Star Song had gotten a copy, too, along with Riri. Jane had asked Erick to give the Spider Polymage one, too, for the spidery would likely be responsible for a lot of wire production in the future. Erick agreed with her decision. Erick said, “You’ll have to find out the rest on your own.”

Koori excitedly asked, “How bright can the lights get?”

“Very bright.” Erick said, “But I used basic materials, and…”

From there, Erick spent a bit of time answering questions from everyone, and even a few from some of the Smiths that had come with the elders. He took the toast off of the cooktop, and showed it off, while speaking about a dual-sided cooktop that could be made that could toast the bread on both sides.

He showed Koori, and everyone else, how to use the cooktop. She absolutely loved everything about electricity. The elders were downright frosty compared to her enthusiasm, but even they had the Sight to see the power laid out before them, for the taking.

The power multiplier of [Small Spark] applied to a proper motor was massive. Many utility spells achieved a similar level of strength for a similar level of mana, with [Grow] being 5 mana to make a small tree, or [Rejuvenation] being 5 mana to restore 20 times Willpower in Health, over ten seconds.

But it was hard to use [Grow] to accomplish actual work, and to get work out of [Rejuvenation] required a fleshy, living target to do the work. Sure, all [Small Spark] did here was make a rotor spin, or make a cooktop hot, or turn on a light, but [Small Spark] was reliable, varied, strong power, only bottlenecked by a back-end production of goods that anyone could make, or repair, if they knew how. And that’s what made all the difference.

In a moment of excited thoughts about the future, Koori asked, “Will you stay here and help teach some children?”

Erick announced, “No. Thank you for the offer, but I am moving on. Today. Right after we’re done here, actually.”

Koori’s joy briefly collapsed. The elders stopped arguing to look to him. Niyazo, though, knew it was coming.

The leader of Clan Pale Cow said, “Thank you for showing when you did, Erick. You revealed ten thousand problems and then solved nine thousand and nine hundred of them. It might not be my place to say it, but the grasslands will always be in your debt.”

The elders nodded in agreement. Teer almost said something—

Koori asked, “So soon? You don’t have to go so soon.”

“I do, though.” Erick smiled softly. “It’s been wonderful to be here. Clan Pale Cow has treated me very well for a person who came in unannounced, and barged their way onto the scene.”

Koori waved a hand, “Don’t worry about that. You’re welcome here. Always.”

“Yes. But I’m still moving on.”

Koori reluctantly nodded, saying, “Then… Thank you, Erick.”

Erick nodded back.

Teer inclined her head toward the space outside of Erick’s magical protections, where people waited with applications in hand for their turns to speak to Erick. “Our merchants will miss you most of all, for you brought them lots of money with this new interest you thrummed up.”

“I’ve already completed every monster kill request out there, today.” Erick said, “Every single one of those people is hoping to sell me something, or ask me for something that they don’t need. All the important requests have come and gone.” Erick suggested, “You should ask them if they want to make deals with your people, instead.”

Teer chuckled. “Perhaps we shall, now that you’re going.”

They spoke for a little while longer about this and that, while Erick recast [Small Spark] upon his various appliances as needed. Neither the motor, the light bulb, or the toaster broke while Erick was there, which was pretty good. The differential in the skeleton of a car did break, though, but only because the Smiths were stress testing the gearing system. As the rear axle broke and a pair of riders fell out onto the grass, the Smiths all turned to Erick, eyes wide in fear, but Erick just laughed it off and cast a [Mend].

Erick almost spoke to the Smiths about their thoughts on his metals, but they were not comfortable around him, though they were quite interested in his designs. So Erick left them to it.

Eventually, stuff got moved around. The motor and the car framework and a few other small things went to a few different locations, as debated over by the elders, without Erick’s interference. He did help move them to those new locations, though.

The light bulb and the toaster cooktop went to Clan Pale Cow; a departing gift for their hospitality.

Koori felt quite embarrassed by Erick calling what they had done ‘hospitality’, and she said as much, but Erick was quick to point out custom and tradition required certain things of him, and far be it for him to upset those traditions. Koori was mollified by that, giving a simple, happy ‘thanks’, as she accepted the primitive inventions.

Eventually, the grass travelers of Ooloraptoor had taken everything that Erick had given them, and they departed with relieved shoulders and easy expressions. In their wake, platforms of grey-white stone littered the yard; empty. Even the tools Erick had made had been graciously accepted by the Smiths, for they always had more room in their sheds for lathes and hammers and rulers. Erick had even given away the remaining copper to Pale Cow, and also to Zolique, the Lightning Mage back in Eralis.

Erick spared a glance to Zolique’s home, to see her excitedly reading and yelling about electricity, as she played with [Small Spark] and wires. Her son watched from nearby, his hands loosely clenched on the wands of healing and [Dispel].

Erick turned his attention back to his ‘front yard’ and began returning the stone platforms to the land, [Stoneshape]ing them to sand and dirt. With a [Watershape], he picked up a large amount of water from the pond and scattered it across the dirty land. A burst of [Growth Aura] helped grass to fully reclaim the space.

And then it was all cleaned up. He was ready…

Mostly ready.

Erick ran a few more errands here and there, like filling up stone boxes for the wandering soul children with [Delirium Charm]s and [Personal Delirium Charm]s, and giving a few of those same Charms to Devouring Nightmare, for Warzi. He Blessed a few more people in the mountains, though the three people he Blessed were the only people to show up for a Blessing in the last twelve hours, so maybe that would slow down, too.

One thing certainly wasn’t slowing down, though.

Erick turned to the side, and looked to his meeting platform where an Ophiel stood on top of a mailbox full of blank applications, and filled out requests for aid. Near that space stood people waiting for their time to talk to him; about eighty groups, or about three hundred people in total. Compared to five days ago, almost everyone out there wanted something frivolous.

Just an hour ago, there had been about six hundred people out there. Some of those people had come in when Erick was explaining electricity and how to utilize it, just so that they could get a lesson on ‘whatever the archmage was teaching’, as Erick overheard them say. A lot of those looky-loos had departed when the lesson was over. A lot more people started departing when they saw Erick giving away all his stuff, for the crowd recognized that Erick was moving on.

And yet, some people remained, hoping that what they were seeing wasn’t what they were seeing, or that Erick would choose to come out for one final assistance. A few people even appeared in the space after it became clear that Erick was moving on.

Erick cast his gaze across those people now, skimming the applications in the mailbox, and reading the applications in the hands of their petitioners, just to be sure that no one had an urgent, true need. Mostly, the needs Erick saw were not desires that required an archmage’s solutions.

Except…

Erick paused. With Ophiel flying over the grouped people, he saw something odd among one of the petitioners. A man held a glass carving of a dragon scale, under his arm in a paper-wrapped package. The man was alone, though he was chatting with some other people who were also waiting for their turn at Erick. The man’s glass scale was an exact match for the one that Daizing and Roia, of the Knives of the Night, had given Erick, back before he Blessed almost their entire Cultist organization. It was the scale to contact the dragon Ordoonarati.

The man noticed Ophiel noticing him. The man waved, then held up the package.

A few other people waved, thinking that Erick was looking at them, instead. At that, almost everyone who had been relaxing, or sitting, or waiting, went on high alert. They hopped up and prepared themselves to make their cases for why Erick should help them with whatever it was they wanted.

Erick called out to Poi, on the porch of the yurt, and his people inside, “Looks like we got a concern.”

Poi was already looking that way.

Teressa came out of the yurt with eyes wide and clouded over. “I don’t see anything in the manasphere.”

Jane and Nirzir came out of the yurt, wondering what was going on.

“Let me know if that changes, Teressa.” Erick said, “Poi, with me. Teressa, stay here. Jane and Nirzir, prepare, but don’t make it obvious. Hopefully nothing will happen.”

Poi hopped down from the yurt to follow Erick, as Erick walked across the grasslands, toward the meeting platform. At their approach, all of the remaining petitioners who hadn’t prepared themselves for Erick’s arrival launched to their feet to be presentable. Unlike on the first day, no one lined up, for Erick had already shown that lining up did nothing; he would take their concerns as he saw fit.

Erick, unimpeded, walked across the grassland to his platform. Standing atop the stone, he said to the gathered crowds, “I’m done with assisting people, for now, unless you have an actual emergency. If you do not have an emergency, I do not appreciate you taking up my time. Please remove yourself from this area if you do not have an emergency.” Erick added, “That said: if you have a longer-term concern that will become an emergency, you may remain, and we might speak of it.”

Thankfully, forty seven of the eighty-ish groups took their leave.

Erick leveled a withering stare at a couple whose application boiled down to a ‘platinum rain investment opportunity’, saying, “I do not need investment opportunities.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The couple nodded rapidly, then vanished in a blip of orange light.

After a few more heavy words, Erick rid himself of all but eleven groups. The man with the dragon scale was among those groups, but he could wait.

Erick found a dead child for a suddenly grieving mother and father, and tried not to think about if he had helped them seven hours ago that the child might still be alive. He saved yet another coastal village from a tangled hydra. He burned a forest to the ground, taking the monsters inside with it. He rescued a teenager from a bandit gang on the far side of the Tribulations, reuniting the overjoyed boy with his father and uncle, who wept tears of happiness at the boy’s return.

He killed some more monsters.

And then there was only one person left to deal with. The man with the dragon scale.

(There were a few more groups trickling in after the dragon man, but Erick ignored those.)

Erick invited the man onto his platform, asking him, “Do you wish for a Privacy?”

“Sure.”

Erick sealed them in a Privacy, then dropped all politeness, casually demanding, “So what’s all this, then?”

The man nodded deeply, respectfully, then he raised his head. His eyes had been normal brown, but now they were bright green, and full of shadows. “This man is a willing participant in a pact made long ago, so don’t go thinking that I have corrupted his soul or anything like that; Linxel was the only unwilling person I have soul touched in a long time, hence my failure, and his discovery.”

Erick managed to speak without too much malice in his voice, “Ordoonarati, I presume.”

“Correct.”

“And why would someone agree to be soul fucked?” Erick asked, “The alternative was death?”

“Nothing nearly so crass.” Ordoonarati’s representative turned a bit angry, but he calmed, and said, “In exchange for a better life, which he has gotten, I am able to use him to speak to others, without them being able to track me down. It is a trick used by my kind in order to interact with each other without risking a physical interaction or tracking spells, for this spellwork cannot be blocked or tracked by any means save for Wizardry.”

Erick would be testing that theory after the man left, but for now, he asked, “So why have you come here?”

Ordoonarati eyed Erick. “You saw what happened at the debates, and yet you have hostility toward me? Have I not proven that I can bend with the wind? There need not be any further action between us, Archmage Flatt. You have goaded a reluctant archmage back into the public eye, and though you are taking your own power with you when you go, you are leaving us grass travelers with Koori, the Cleanser, and so we are much stronger than we were before.” Ordoonarati said, “You have killed every large monster in this land, ensuring easy prosperity for at least a year. Your ideas for Integration might keep this land from turning into a copy of Songli; might keep us free of the nobility. You have brought technology to this place, and explained how to use it.” He said, “I thought you were a plague, but I was mistaken. You are a savior, and a true Fire of the Age. I did not believe them, and I apologize for that.”

Erick allowed his anger to seep away. “I do not wish to fight you, either, for whatever would happen, others would suffer for it.”

Ordoonarati nodded. “Even if we do become allies in the future, this is how it is between powers.”

Erick got to the meat of the matter. “I want to know that I’m not leaving a problem at my back, Ordoonarati.”

“And so, we arrive at the main reason I have come today. I don’t wish to leave a festering problem at my back, either.” Ordoonarati said, “So in the spirit of friendship, I will inform you a little about [Gate], as I know of the spell.”

Erick was highly skeptical, and he allowed that emotion to show. Anything the dragon said could be the truth, or a lie, or simply misleading. And yet… It might work out. Trust was an important part to starting a relationship of any kind, and though Ordoonarati did not seem trustworthy at all…

Erick was willing to try, for what other response was there? To find and kill this hidden dragon? Thousands would die in the crossfire, for sure.

And yet, Erick was still skeptical. Perhaps even more so than he was when this conversation had started.

Erick said, “You said you wouldn’t give me this information unless I brought you a Wizard.”

The man speaking for Ordoonarati sat straight, his eyes glowing even brighter, darker green for a brief moment. He eyed Erick. “Do you know of any Wizards?”

“Probably not.” Erick said, “I’m not even sure what to look for when it comes to those types, besides a core of some sort and the production of their own sort of mana. I usually kill monsters, though, so I might have accidentally killed one, for I have killed cannibals before. How would I know if I had killed a Wizard?”