171, 1/2

Erick got out of the hot tub. He dripped water and steam as he cleaned up his meal and every bit of mess he had made while he sat there, eating scones and gazing across the mountains. It had been a good break, but it was time to move on, and even though the elder of the house wasn’t present, and likely only ever existed in the distant, distant past, if at all, Erick still wanted to be a good guest.

When he was once again dressed and ready to go, with his backpack on and his spellwork recast, Erick went out into the village and looked around one last time. He hadn’t been a guest for long, but it was a nice little place. Maybe he would be back later, but probably not.

He looked up and relaxed as he simply stood there, letting the cool white light of the blue Core soak into his face, and warm his body. And then Erick opened his eyes and lightstepped into the air above the village.

“Thanks for the hospitality,” Erick said one last time, before turning his gaze outward.

Where to next?

There were many choices. That mountain range with its cities. The dry lands over there in the center of that continent, with the little villages. The riverlands over there. The coast. The islands past the coast. The other continents. The giant cities on the other continent. Another small city nearby.

“Got a suggestion, Ophiel?” Erick glanced at the little guy on his shoulder.

Chirp chirp.

“Some place Yggdrasil would like.” Erick nodded. “Good idea.”

With that in mind… Where would Yggdrasil like to be?

“He’s already in two bodies of water. Perhaps something… less wet?”

Chirp Chirp.

“He likes the water so we’ll keep that the same. That rules out the mountains and the plains… Let’s fly around until we find something nice.” Erick looked up the bowl of the inner world, to where it vanished past the depth of air, and then completely disappeared beyond the blue curvature of the Core above. “The Core seems like an ocean of mana, but… Not there, either.”

Chirp chirp!

Erick said, “Ah! Right. I should test some basic spellwork, to understand if everything works the same down here before I explore.”

One of the nearby Ophiel got ready for testing, chirping as he hovered in front of Erick.

Erick smiled. Then he and Ophiel moved high into the sky to test out his magics.

After a few tests of basic spellwork, aiming at nothing in particular and canceling his spells before they reached very far at all, Erick quickly realized some important facts about the Outer Core to keep in mind going forward. Magic down here was the same as it was on the Surface. Even [Teleport] worked, which was a surprise. For some reason, Spatial Magic didn’t work in the Underworld, but it worked here, directly next to the Core.

But another test conducted on a cloudgate showed that there might be a problem leaving this place.

Ophiel blipped down, aiming for the tunnel Erick knew to exist beyond the cloudgate below. The ball of feathers and eyes ended up bouncing off of the cloudy surface, unable to pass through. Physically pushing didn’t seem to get Ophiel anywhere, either. Erick recalled Ophiel and frowned at the cloudgate.

He could certainly get through the cloudgate again, no problem, but the thought of fighting so many monsters so soon filled him with a small dread that sent him mentally recoiling. Either the thought of being trapped down here, or the thought of having to face an unexpectedly strong monster, or the idea of never seeing Jane again… He wasn’t certain which of his thousand and one thoughts sent him reeling, but he went reeling, for sure.

Several deep breaths later Erick calmed himself down, and he told himself that he could do what needed to be done, when it needed to be done. But not yet. Not so soon. There was still a lot to do down here.

And since Spatial Magic worked down here then maybe he could make [Gate] and get home that way, avoiding the monsters completely! Erick smiled as he had that thought. Well then. There was already a plan to work with Yggdrasil to make [Gate], so that plan moved to the front of his needs. He would conduct at least one of the tests he had in mind for [Gate] creation, and he might even succeed.

But there was a problem with that plan.

The Worldly Path ended with a visit from Melemizargo, and then the potential Walker got [Gate]. At least, this is how it was according to everything Erick had discovered so far. Because of that fact, Erick suspected that there might be a problem with completing this Quest in the Core. The mana down here felt different than the mana up there, but to be sure that his theory was correct, he ca—

He stopped.

Erick prepared to cast a spell in the same way that one prepares to touch a hot stove; hesitant, and then all at once. This time, he followed through. He cast a spell.

A cascading orb of white light flashed into existence overhead, spreading radio waves all over, and eliciting a white fog out of the air all around Erick. He had already input the searching target, and he was prepared to see the white fog turn deep blue the second [Cascade Imaging] started, but as moments turned to minutes and the foggy map turned more solid…

There was no blue.

Melemizargo was not in this land.

Erick… was not sure how to feel about that. He had touched the stove and found it cold.

But if Melemizargo wasn’t here… Were the other gods here?

To test this new theory, Erick thought up a good Particle Magic question about wormholes, so that he wouldn’t be in violation of Particular Insight’s requirement to ask about Particle Magic, specifically, and he called the god of The End and Time. A hundred mana vanished into the manasphere like so many scattered white glows.

The white glows were odd; that had never happened before. Usually it was a simple cast of mana that vanished into the manasphere, and then gold fire appeared. But…

Erick waited. He frowned. It never took this long before.

He eyed the inverted world.

“… Hello?” Erick asked, “Phagar?”

No response.

He checked the manasphere, casting his sight back in time, to see if Phagar was there like he usually was when Erick went looking.

No Phagar.

“Uh. Okay.” Erick said, “This is rather strange, Ophiel.”

Ophiel chirped; it was very strange!

Phagar could simply choose not to answer, as gods were wont to do, but that seemed incorrect.

Well.

Whatever.

Erick moved right along. He had the main plan already made; he just needed a place to plant Yggdrasil somewhere and then he could certainly talk to the people outside. Unless Yggdrasil couldn’t grow here? Or maybe Yggdrasil’s other bodies had popped when Erick went out of range? Ohh. That might be bad. Hopefully that hadn’t happened.

Erick picked a spot in the distance that looked good and headed that way.

– – – –

Upon seeing his chosen spot, which was a mountain, with a village and a freshwater lake at the base, Erick spotted a better location.

A city lay in the far distance, like a glittering patch of white buildings clinging to the space between a land of green, and the sparkling blue ocean. It didn’t take long to get there, and when Erick did, he knew this was the proper location for Yggdrasil. Something called to Erick as he eyed the place and judged it perfect—

Well. Not the city itself. More specifically, the patch of ocean next to the city. Erick would explore that later, but for now, he had a city to inspect.

… Purely to make sure this was an actually-good location. He’d get to Yggdrasil soon enough.

… He was gunshy about summoning his largest [Familiar], too, but he’d get to it soon enough. He just needed some time. Yes. That was all. A bit more time.

The city was a land of white towers and cathedrals and shorter, but no less well-made duplexes and single family homes, and apartment buildings. Almost every building had a picture window of some sort, made of rainbow stained glass, while some, like the cathedrals and governmental buildings had multiple windows of artful, crystal light. And it was crystal in the more expensive places, for sure; not glass. The streets were paved with white stone. Fountains bubbled everywhere. Bakeries were fully stocked with bread while beer halls and smokehouses and restaurants were all well provisioned, like the people who lived here had simply stepped out for a break.

Except there were no people at all. A [Cascade Imaging] helped to prove as much, and with some shifting of that Imaging, Erick found a few good places to look for answers. Searching for ‘books’ proved a great diversion, for the libraries had so very, very many books. Thankfully, they were not blank, or some shit like that. Erick had half expected that to happen. But, no. The books were real. But the books held a different problem. They were in languages that Erick had never seen before. There were passing similarities to Ancient Script in more than a few books, and once, Erick even managed to read half of a letter he found tucked into a desk by a window. Only half the letter, though. The rest made no sense at all.

And now, Erick stood in a dark wood library of some noble, for sure, for the room was three stories tall and about that wide, with walls made of shelves. Every shelf was packed full of non magical books, each bound in fine leather and organized in some arcane system that Erick had never encountered before. Parts of it seemed organized alphabetically, but only smaller parts, and Erick could only tell this much because of his massive Intelligence, for sure.

This library was organized oddly, but at least it wasn’t organized by color. He had found and dismissed four separate libraries of similar size to this one because they were organized by color. Massive wastes of space, for sure, but they were certainly pretty rooms to look at.

This library, in this massive house of white stone and towers and greenhouses, was probably the one Erick was going to study for a while, if he chose to stay here. This house didn’t have any active magic —there wasn’t any active magic anywhere, actually— but these books were clearly supposed to be of a magical nature. Erick recognized some formations on the shelves that should have been filled with magic, and almost every single book had smatterings of formation diagrams in them, too—

“Ah. I should check my Minor Entity of the Script access.” Erick almost slapped himself. “Maybe there are more people in this land with me.” And if not people, then Rozeta, for sure. He put the book back on the shelf and instigated—

A human woman of white everything, from hair to skin to eyes to her white pantsuit, stepped out of the air three meters away.

Rozeta semi-rapidly said, “Hello, Erick. Welcome to the Outer Core. I am exceedingly busy at the moment, otherwise I might have been here before now but since you’re forcing the issue: Is there some specific thing I can help you with?”

Erick nodded, then he rapidly asked, “Where are all the people? Can I plant Yggdrasil in the ocean in that direction?” He pointed toward the ocean. “Do you mind if I make some magic here? What’s going on with this place? What’s up with the [Luminous Beam] on the guardians? And can I get a cast of [Language Acquisition] to understand these books? But I don’t have any grand-rads on me at the moment.”

Rozeta nodded, then said, “Easy ones first, and not in the order you asked them: Make whatever magic you wish, but be respectful of this land. You were already respectful enough to solve the breach you caused, and you’re you, so though you have trespassed, I trust you enough not to force you out. Because I trust you, you may plant Yggdrasil wherever you wish.

“But know this:

“The Outer Core is a memorial to lost lands and a receptacle for replacement parts in case the worst should happen on Veird.” Rozeta said, “This land was not intended to become a holy land to my people, but it has, and the wrought feverishly protect it from all intruders. You are an intruder, but you are also a Minor Entity, which does hold a certain amount of sway. How much? I will not say, for that would be involving myself with mortal matters.

“As for the guardians possessing [Luminous Beam]: the Core is protected by the wrought, as previously explained. It’s complicated and I won’t go into all of the details of how, mostly because security is security, but those guardians and their cloudgates have been there for a very, very long time. They’re old, but they also get upgraded every so often. Recently, they’ve been upgraded with [Luminous Beam], and since [Luminous Beam] is a very good spell, they use it almost exclusively ever since it was added.

“I believe this is actually a bug in the formations which create the guardians, but it is only after your breakthrough that the caretakers of that magic are finally starting to agree with me that their system is bugged.

“Finally: Yes, you may have [Language Acquisition] cast upon you. Instead of the usual cost, I’ve already taken the liberty of removing the grand rads from the monsters you killed and left to rot. You now have a plus-395 grand rad balance. Use it as you wish.” She flickered with divine fire and magic settled over Erick. “This [Language Acquisition] is a good version that will last as long as you’re inside the Outer Core and a week past that. You probably won’t learn anything too interesting from these books since they’re all based upon reality that no longer exists, but I would never begrudge anyone their diversions.” She stood fractionally straighter, “And now that your questions are answered, I must tell you off.

“Normally, a breach is a lot more deadly for the breacher. Sometimes they get through, though, and they fail to stop the flood of monsters that come inside with them. Those monsters remove on average at least ten cloudgates, letting even more monsters flood into the Outer Core, before they’re stopped. If ever all the cloudgates should fall, which has happened before, then the Inner Core becomes vulnerable. With the Inner Core exposed, all life on this world is in danger of…

“Let’s simply call it ‘bad things’, because the failure states have looked different every time we’ve gotten close to them. But, on the plus side: The Core Defenses ramp up significantly if things look to be going that way.” Rozeta said, “Luckily, this time you prevented that entire series of problems from ever becoming a problem. So, with that, and everything else you’ve done taken into account, you get a pass, Erick.

“From me. I should clarify: You get a pass from me.” Rozeta stared a bit, saying, “But this shit here was dangerous. You have more than enough power to prevent the worst case scenario, and I’m truly glad you thought to do so, so you get a pass. But other people know what could have happened here, since they’ve lived through it multiple times before.

“Every time someone tries to reach the core, and succeeds, the world almost dies. The wrought understand this. Perhaps they’re too insular down here, in the Underworld. Perhaps some of them disregard fleshy life as frivolous and flighty, so they don’t treat with true mortals like they should. Perhaps they should have been kinder and asked you to meet with them inside their cities.

“But whatever.

“The wrought have a purpose, and that purpose is to protect the world from an unexpected End, and they do a very good job of that. Aside from that, they’re free to live their lives as they see fit, making their own governments and societies and decisions about those societies.” Rozeta breathed. Then she said, “I don’t control the wrought. I give guidance and support, and that’s it. So don’t expect me to get between them and you when they invariably come for you.”

Erick felt the weight of the moment upon his chest. “Okay. I get it.”

“I know you do.” Rozeta said, “And just so you know: Some of those wrought will arrive here in a few days to investigate everything that happened, but there are no easy ways to get here. There are no back doors to the Core. So they’ll have to wade through the monsters like you did, but since all the doors are closed and monsters fill the passageways, there’s not much of an actual emergency. A lot of the usual emergency response was not necessary.” Rozeta said, “The people that do show will want you to leave, but you’re free to do whatever you want, and they’re free to do whatever they want, too. I ask you not to kill them; I have already asked them not to kill you.”

A moment passed while Rozeta let that all sink in.

Erick said, “Heard and understood. Thanks for the warnings.”

Rozeta nodded. “Even with all that said, there is one more important thing to tell you, and then I must be going: I will not let you create a [Gate] in this land. You are a Wizard, so you could probably blow through a few of the protections against such a creation of magic, but I will not save you from the backlash when the defenses activate. There can be no back doors to the Core.” She paused. She continued, “But simultaneously, I wish you well on your creation of [Gate]. I can guide you on that, if you wish, but such guidance will not happen here, or now. Come to the Orrery in Nergal, instead.”

“Understood.” Erick said, “No back doors.”

“None.” Rozeta said, “Even the [Telepathy] you’ll get out of Yggdrasil isn’t something I would normally allow, but I’m planning for the far future, here, and I need to see what happens. So I will allow this, for a while. Yggdrasil will not be allowed to stay in the Outer Core, either.” Rozeta relaxed a fraction. “If you want a place for Yggdrasil, I can make a nice spot for him outside of the Core. I promise he’ll like it. I promise you will like it, too.”

“Okay. I understand.” Erick said, “I’ll replant him elsewhere. What sort of place were you thinking?”

Rozeta allowed herself a tiny smile, and a grateful sigh. “I’m not sure yet; I’ll probably ask some of my people to make a spot.” She said, “A final piece of advice: When you get out of here, don’t accept my father’s help creating a [Gate]. You don’t need him, Erick. You’re Wizard enough on your own, and I’m sure, with time, you will—” Her eyes flicked left with her head turning a moment later, but slower, and more methodical. She frowned at the empty space as she spoke to Erick, “You’ll come into your power soon eno— Bah.” She turned back to Erick. “I must go. Call me again in a few days when you have more questions.”

And then she vanished.

Erick looked at the space Rozeta had occupied for a moment longer, wondering if that had been a good interaction, or not. He leaned toward ‘good’, but he had apparently risked the world to break into this place, and Rozeta did not approve.

Erick wanted to rail against the injustice of not being let into a protected space, but that seemed childish. Security was security, for a reason, and the Core had a very good reason for being secured like it was.

Anyway. Next time Erick would ask Rozeta about what it meant to be a Wizard, and why the other gods weren’t able to answer him here in the Inner Core. There were a lot of questions that Erick would have to save till next time. And… yeah.

Rozeta was busy.

Erick was busy, too. He could talk to her again later, but in the meantime, he had no idea what was going on outside of the Core and he didn’t want to be separated from everyone else for too long. It was time to summon Yggdrasil. Even if [Gate] creation was blocked down here, there were many other reasons to plant the big guy down nearby. Erick wasn’t done with his exploration of the land down here, for there were certainly secrets laying in wait in thousands upon thousands of places, but he needed someone to talk to that wasn’t Ophiel just parroting him. It’d be nice to talk to everyone else on the surface, too. Just how long had Erick been gone, anyway? Hopefully not too long.

And besides that, Yggdrasil was probably worried about Erick, too. Erick knew he was certainly worried about Yggdrasil.

One final thing to do in this library, though. Erick scanned through the stacks, looking for a few books with lots of pictures to aid with learning the language. Such targets were easy enough to find; there was a whole shelf of little knickknacks for kids, including stuffed toys and leather balls and more than a few dolls, along with a whole row of colorful books on the second to lowest shelf. Knowing what he now knew, Erick suspected that this place was a copy of someone’s former home from the Old Cosmology, but translated to this New Cosmology.

Every single city down here was probably like that.

Erick copied every children’s book on that colorful children’s shelf, along with several dozen of the more expensive-looking probably-magic grimoires strung throughout the rest of the library. That would be enough reading material while he hung out with Yggdrasil for the next few days, or something.

Holding his new copies in his light, Erick and Ophiel took a lightstep to their next location, by the ocean.

– – – –

The white city had been built upon a jag of land extending out from the main continent. Past that jut of land, a string of smaller islands trailed off into the ocean to where they grew smaller and smaller until, after five islands, the bumpy land disappeared under the waves, and all that lay ahead was blue.

The city had developed onto the first three of those islands with a massive, arched, white bridge made of stone. For a brief moment Erick thought the bridge was an architectural marvel because stone couldn’t get that thin without magic, and he saw no magic, but then his second thought informed him that this was the Underworld, and gravity was only a suggestion down here.

The bridge was but one of three such bridges leading from the mainland to the nearest island. A similar bridge connected that first island to the second one, and then a third one connected the second island to the third.

The first of the islands held a massive, soaring white castle of several towers and a few curtain walls. Bright blue roofs and shining silver gates served almost as decorations, while private gardens and rooms upon rooms of plush bedding and couches and all the proper amenities of nobility served almost as showrooms, telling the story of the white city’s prosperity. Practically every room had a bit of rainbow stained ‘glass’, too, in the form of windows set above doors. There were a few masterwork sculptures of crystal in courtyards here and there, as well.

The second island had a wizard’s tower of some sort, with an orrery at the top and enough sculptures of wizards to give Erick pause. He didn’t spend too long there because that place was packed with secrets, and with the first sorts of traps that he had seen in this land. He could suss out all the little secrets of that place another day, though, for he had a mission.

But before he got to that mission, Erick checked on the third island. An obvious chapel stood in the center of that land, dedicated to gods Erick had never heard of, or seen before. He didn’t spend too long there, either, but mostly because it was one of the few places that seemed truly sacred.

And, he had other stuff to do. He had checked out those locations just to ensure that there would be no obvious problems with what he came here to do, for the ocean and Yggdrasil called to him.

Erick returned to the sky above it all. To the right of the islands lay a protected harbor. Boats bobbed in the gentle waves of that harbor, looking ready to unload their goods, or to accept loads of goods waiting for them on the docks. Those transfers would never happen though, for those boats had been sitting there like that for a very, very long time— Or? Ah. Maybe not?

They had likely only been there since the last time this land was ravaged by monsters and the Core almost fell. According to Rozeta’s implications, nothing here was actually 1,450 years old; dated to the time of the Sundering. Whatever the case, Erick wasn’t going to plant Yggdrasil in the harbor, anyway; that would be disrespectful.

To the left of the white castle and wizard’s tower and chapel and harbor, though, lay the open ocean. The ocean was freshwater, too, so saltwater wasn’t even a concern.

Erick set down on a small, sandy beach at the base of the white castle. Ophiel propped up a [Prismatic Ward] across the beach while another primed themselves with [Greater Treat Wounds]. A third Ophiel was already out in the deep blue, under the freshwater waves, looking for a good spot.

The beach dipped below the waves, sand becoming seafloor as the land gently sloped down a continental shelf that ended about a kilometer and a half from shore, where a steep drop gave way to the true ocean. The greater ocean was only half a kilometer deep, though. There were a few underwater hills that rose halfway to the surface, but mostly, and judging only from the small inspection Erick had made of it all, the Outer Core ocean was a uniform half kilometer deep.

Of all the artificial things of this ‘warehouse world’, the uniformity of the ocean depths was perhaps the strangest. Or, more likely, it was simply the strangest thing yet; there was still a lot of land and empty cities to explore.

That was all stuff to do later, though.

An Ophiel flooded the land with his [Physical Domain]; not to break anything, but to check to see how deep the dirt actually went, before it encountered the absolute barrier of the edge of the Outer Core—

Ah. Erick found the edge. With a bit of prodding to make sure… Yup! Beyond the flat bottom of the ocean, about 1500 meters beyond, a rather uniform pressure pushed back on Ophiel’s power. Erick didn’t press further. He relaxed Ophiel’s [Physical Domain] and picked one of the larger underwater hills, about seven kilometers out from the beach.

A few Ophiel went there in sunform. One of them cast a columnar [Prismatic Ward] straight up and down, from the base of where Yggdrasil would grow, to three hundred meters up, pushing that Restful density to as large as it could go. Erick hoped such a preparation would lessen the mana drain he was about to endure… It might!

It might not.

“Enough preparation, Erick,” Erick said to himself. “Just do it.”

Ophiels chirped in agreement; they were ready to support him with [Greater Treat Wounds] if he went down, and he probably would.

Erick cast through Ophiel, targeting the land below the waves—

– – – –

A broken dream of fragmented sight and constant missing time, with days feeling like minutes and moments passing without measure, suddenly changed. The world seemed smaller, and larger. Land was land, water was water, air was air again, unlike the jumble it had once been. As reality solidified, time solidified, too.

In a lake by a city of protective candles and biting dirt, and in another lake in a place filled with great big fish and not enough lightning, Yggdrasil realized that he was also somewhere else. A new place. Tracing the whole of himself, he found a curved, strange path that connected him to another set of senses deep, deep underground. In the other direction, Yggdrasil found his old bodies, up on the Surface.

He focused completely on the new space.

A land of endless stillness. A land with a familiar person, of warmth and love and light, calling to him.

The world began to make sense again.

Yggdrasil asked the ending dream, “Father?”

– – – –

Erick slumped to the beach as everything left him, drained like so much blood from a body. His breath stopped as his heart slowed and Mana and Health ripped away, forming a small life at the bottom of a fake ocean that needed more power. A hacking laugh and a spray of blood escaped Erick’s throat as blood spurted from his nose and turned his vision red and he struggled to stay awake. He managed, but it was a bare thing; he knew this was going to happen. He had been prepared. He was barely prepared enough. Ophiel hit him with a [Greater Treat Wounds], and that helped.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Erick’s vision drew him to the source of his pain, and his connection to the outside world.

Across the way, kilometers into the ocean, white surf burst the blue surface and kept on coming, lifting waves into the air and dumping millions of tons of water back into the ocean, only to form more fountains of white that rose further into the sky. As seconds passed the explosion parted, revealing what had surfaced from below.

White branches extended into the cloudy air of the Outer Core, and then stretched out, like rivers of white that rapidly spread into tributaries and streams of glowing brightness. Fiery green leaves burst into existence—

And the drain slowed.

Erick breathed deep, like someone had taken off a boulder from his chest. Ophiel hit him with another [Greater Treat Wounds], and that took the remaining edge off. Erick lifted himself from the sands—

A brilliant gold fire rippled inside the landscape of his soul, like the gentle tearing of a net. Freezing chills followed as the net tore, but the net began to repair almost as fast, as though a million invisible spiders were stitching it back together, but in a different arrangement. As the golden net fell back into his soul, back to invisibility, it seemed thicker in some spots, but looser in others. A brief check on Yggdrasil’s blue box revealed Erick’s maximum summons was at 4; one more than before.

A blue box appeared as soon as the gold light settled.

So he was still on the right Path. That was good. Erick dismissed the box and gazed across the waters. His breath hitched as his heart beat harder; it was a magnificent sight.

Yggdrasil was almost fully grown. Kilometers tall and just as wide, the white tree towered over the blue ocean, its kilometer long branches filled with leaves of green fire. As Erick watched, more Mana drained from him, and a bright, rainbow crown encircled all of Yggdrasil like a road of prismatic light rounding a mountain.

The drain from Yggdrasil slowed even more, down to a trickle, and then to something small enough that Erick’s regeneration overcame Yggdrasil’s demands. He relaxed as he waited for some Mana and Health to regenerate. His spellwork had shut off when Yggdrasil emptied him. A half minute later, Erick turned on [Greater Lightwalk], and then [Lodestar]. Yggdrasil was almost fully formed.

With warm, loving thoughts, Erick sent a telepathic, wordless greeting to Yggdrasil, speaking of home and hello and how’ve-you-been, all at once.

“FATHER!” Yggdrasil’s voice boomed across the sky of the Outer Core, filling the world with demanding, and longing, and hope, “WHERE—”

“Over here, Yggdrasil.” Erick tugged on Yggdrasil’s sight, directing him to the beach. “I’m right—”

A tendril of light erupted out from Yggdrasil, longer and thicker than all of his branches combined. He touched Erick, instantly. In a flashing moment, Erick found himself standing on the upper branches of Yggdrasil, upon a flattish section of the curving trunk. For a moment he was disoriented, but he recovered fast enough. Erick guessed he had been [Teleport Other]’d, and that was fine, because there was something else to worry about aside from his own safety. All around him, formerly-fiery green foliage dropped through the air in a minor downpour of crunchy, curled and browned leaves. The world seemed dimmer, and it probably was, for Yggdrasil’s bark flickered and faded with obvious sadness. He didn’t cry, though, because that was a human emotion, and Yggdrasil certainly was not human.

Erick instantly laid down on Yggdrasil, putting his arms wide and hugging the branch as he pressed his face against the dim white surface, saying, “It’s okay, Yggdrasil. Sorry for leaving you behind. Did you have trouble while I was gone?”

Yggdrasil’s dim bark brightened where Erick touched. After a shaking moment, emotions settled. Slowly, for kilometers all around, light began returning to the massive tree. New green leaves began to grow like a spreading green fire at the ends of every one of Yggdrasil’s branches.

A small, prismatic colored [Scry] eye appeared in front of Erick. Looking at him. Erick smiled at the eye and sat up as the eye rapidly moved around him, checking for truth. A spell flickered out of the bark underneath Erick’s feet and his wounds began to close. Another spell flickered much less than a Script Second later, and the blood from his most recent incident vanished from his face.

Erick smiled gently. “Hello, Yggdrasil.”

Yggdrasil’s voice was a small thing. “Hello, Father.”

“I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

“Tell me all about it.” Erick laid his head sideways on the now-glowing bark. “How long has it been since I vanished?”

“I don’t know! Why did you vanish!”

Erick turned around and looked upward, watching the Core through Yggdrasil’s brightly shining green leaves. And he started talking, first about Enduring Forge, and then about the blipping incident, and how he thought he’d appear somewhere dangerous, yes, but not nearly as dangerous as it turned out to be. And then Erick moved on to talk of monsters and danger and all that. Ophiel showed up soon enough, depositing the books Erick had copied next to him on the trunk, while Erick rambled on about everything.

Yggdrasil listened, silently, intently, his prismatic [Scry] eye hovering around Erick.

Erick got up and moved some of his new stuff around, organizing it as he continued to talk, giving highlights and lowlights to the experience of the Underworld, talking of specific monsters and their abilities. He felt like he was disgorging his worries onto a child, but he asked if his words were too much more than once.

Yggdrasil went, “Not too much. Tell me more, please.”

And so Erick did. He got to the part where he crossed the barrier, into this land, and he named this place the Outer Core, as Rozeta had explained to him.

“I haven’t explored much, but I plan on doing more of that.” Erick added, “And now that you’re here, you can explore it with me.”

“No. You can’t leave me again. You stay right there.” Yggdrasil said, “This Underworld is too dangerous.”